Crews Abandon Search For Man Who Went Under At Tiscornia Park
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Search and recovery crews never found the body of a 24-year-old who drowned at Tiscornia Park on Sunday.
"You see where the yellow thing's at? Wherever that drop-off thing is after that, that's where it happened," said the man's friend Curtis Juniel.
Juniel points to where he last saw his friend's desperate final moments in the Sacramento River. He says his friend, who everyone knew as "Hassan," was struggling in the current.
"Nobody was trying to help him, so I went. And then as soon as I go, I'm trying to pull his arms and get back to surface and stand up," Juniel said.
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But Juniel says the current kept pulling them both down.
"The surf was going to take me or whatever. I couldn't take it, so I started swimming back," Juniel said.
Friends called 911 and the Drowning Accident Rescue Team hit the water to look for the man.
DART says this particular area of the Sacramento River – where it meets up with the American River – has an especially strong current because of a sudden drop-off in the shelf underwater.
Crews also searched above water.
"And then a rescue squad started coming up on the boat, and then we heard a helicopter and maybe three or four ambulances and fire trucks," said witness Rudy Garza.
But after 80 minutes, the search was called off.
Friends of the victim stayed at the scene still in shock.
"It's hard to, to grasp," said Ashley, a friend of the man.
Juniel says it all happened so fast. But once he does leave this park, he's never returning to this part of the river.
"No point. Why would you come back here?"
