An Atlanta family is mourning the loss of their teenage son and family friend after both drowned during a spring break trip after trying to save a group of kids that they didn’t know near Pensacola, Florida.
The parents of Bryce Brooks had an interview with local reporters during a news conference outside Maynard Jackson High School in southeast Atlanta and said that their 16-year-old son was a selfless young man and should be remembered as a hero. “Our children witnessed four other kids who they did not know being pulled by the current further out to the sea,” Bryce’s father Shivy Brooks explained “Our boys sprung into action.”
REST IN PEACE to 16-year-old Bryce Brooks of Atlanta who died after heroically jumping into the ocean in Florida trying to rescue four younger children that he didn’t know from drowning. The children survived.
Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones.
pic.twitter.com/In9FAL85kc
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) April 12, 2023
According to the parents, Shivy and Crystal Brooks, on April 6 their son Bryce noticed a group of kids he didn’t know being pushed by a current at Johnson Beach in Perdido Key, Florida, and appeared to be drowning. Bryce and two others jumped into the Gulf of Mexico waters to save the other children, while three other boys ran to get help. Unfortunately, he began to be pulled under by the strong current, and he drowned.
The current also took the life of family friend Charles Johnson II, who they refer to as “Uncle Chuck.”
Johnson jumped in to attempt to save Bryce. The children were rescued, and four people were transported to local hospitals in the wake of the emergency, the Escambia County Public Information Office for Public Safety told the Pensacola News Journal.
“At that time of being selfless, our son Bryce … while being pulled by currents himself … literally called for help, but not for himself,” Shivy said. “He was calling for help for the little kids he was looking out for.”
Bryce reportedly went to Maynard Jackson High School along with Johnson’s son, who was also on the spring break trip. The Brooks’ family said Bryce was an honor roll student, a member of his school’s fashion club, loved to make music, and always took care of his younger brother. He also appeared on the Netflix show “Instant Dream Home” with his family, in which a crew secretly renovated their Atlanta house.
“We’re never gonna get to see Bryce grow up to be the full man that he was going to be,” Crystal said. “But, we know that he stepped into his manhood to save these children, and that makes me proud. It doesn’t take away an ounce of pain, but it makes me proud of our son.”
RELATED:14-Year-Old Drowns After Swim Team Put Plastic Cover On Pool While She Was Still In It
The family hopes their story sheds a positive light on teenagers in Atlanta after the recent negative media coverage of teenage gun violence in the city. “Let it be amplified that Atlanta-developed kids would give up their lives for other kids,” said Shivy Brooks.
A GoFundMe was started to help the family with funeral costs, and it currently has reached over $80,000 in donations.
The post So Sad! Atlanta Teen Dies Trying To Save 4 Children He Didn’t Know From Drowning In Florida appeared first on Hollywood Unlocked .