Fisherman who saved drowning girl hopes for safety changes at North Texas lake
NORTH TEXAS — A 21-year-old man died while trying to save a teen girl who was drowning.
The girl, who was part of a church group, survived thanks to the help of a boater who jumped into action to save her before attempting to save the young man.
"I don't know how to feel it's been pretty crazy even being back here it's like nothing ever happened you know," said Jacob Bell of Red Oak.
Bell is still trying to make sense of what happened on Saturday at Lake Waxahachie. He was out fishing on his boat with his friend Craig McDonald.
They were finishing up for the day, bringing the boat into the dock, when they heard screams.
"He [Bell] starts coming to me slowly and then there starts being some screaming," said Craig McDonald.
In the distance, Bell saw what he thought was a young girl treading water.
"As I started motoring closer to them and this little girl and, I may be wrong, but it looked like a life jacket in one arm and the other girl by the leg and the girl was underwater floating underwater and I pulled her up," said Bell.
"I don't know how he did it," said McDonald. "It [the boat] has two feet of clearance between the gunwale and the water and somehow got this girl and lifted her up."
He began life-saving CPR. Amazingly, he had just been retrained in CPR for his job. The girl began breathing again when "All of a sudden there's more screaming and I mean it's blood-curdling screaming," said McDonald.
That's when Bell realized a young man who had jumped in, to try to save the girl who was drowning, was now drowning too.
"I ran from there where the boat was across the rocks under that way and jumped in and dove under the water and swam down about 4 to 5 times until I found the boy and I picked him up and I drug him," said Bell.
The 21-year-old man was pronounced dead at a hospital. Bell wishes he got there sooner but credits his own family's painful history with drowning for giving him the strength to jump into action when he did.
"I had a little brother die when I was 12, of drowning, my little brother Chase Ryan Bell," said Bell. "He passed away when I was 12 so it's always been a part of our family, water safety and looking out for people."
They're hoping some change can come from this tragedy. They say without a designated swimming area here, more people could get hurt.
"It just takes a buoy area on a string so that they know where to swim and where not to swim because this is dangerous boats coming in and out here," said Bell.
"The way that dock and the way that swimming area is set up at Lake Waxahachie, it will happen again," said McDonald.
While most would call Bell a hero, "He definitely deserves a cape I mean the dude's a superhero," said McDonald.
"I don't want to be looked at as a hero I mean I'm proud of myself don't get me wrong," said Bell. "And I haven't always been this way I haven't always been a good person so it's very good for me for my soul to be able to do this."
Bell says he rather the praise go to two others.
"The boy was a hero and I want his family to understand that," said Bell. "And the little girl who kept that little girl alive that girl saved that little girl's life ... I hope that anyone would have done what I did."
The City of Waxahachie said it is closing all the lake parks in the city for Labor Day weekend, including Boat Dock Park. This decision was made before this weekend's drowning, but the city said it is a safety precaution due to how busy the lake has become in recent years.