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Rescue Crews Search For Swimmer At Lake Ray Hubbard

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ROWLETT (CBSDFW.COM) - Search teams suspended efforts to find a missing swimmer late Sunday night. Firefighters got the call just before one o'clock to help search for a man who jumped off a boat and never resurfaced.

The man who drowned had stayed behind on his boat while the rest of his group went swimming. He jumped in to save one of the swimmers who got into trouble, but he couldn't save himself.

As boaters came in from the water, many had watched as rescue boats and helicopters worked to find any sign of the missing man. Police say he was with a group of people who got out of their boat to swim. The group stayed on the water for much of the day to help with the search. That's when Fernando Gomez says their boat almost drifted into his.

"Yeah, I think they're just distraught. We were anchored down, and we didn't know what was going on at first. We didn't know that that was the family, and we just noticed the boat just was coming close to us," Gomez said.

Investigators believe none of the swimmers were wearing life jackets when they went swimming.

"We did see that they were wearing the Dallas Police life jackets, and we did notice that," Gomez said.

Police said as the group swam, one of them started to struggle, so the man still on the boat grabbed a life jacket and jumped in the water to help.

"He didn't have one on. He had it in his hand to take it to the person in the water," Dallas Police Deputy Chief Michael Coleman said.

Coleman went on to explain that the man who jumped in to help was the only one who didn't make it back to the boat. Now other boaters say this should serve as a warning to others this holiday weekend to leave their life jackets on at all times.

"Life jackets number one. We all have life jackets, and we wouldn't get on the boat without it 'cause for one it's against the law, and for someone to own a boat or to be on a boat should no better," Gomez said.

Game wardens are reminding everyone that boat owners are required to have a life jacket available for everyone on board, and anyone under 13 has to be wearing their life jacket whenever the boat is in motion.

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