Survivor in icy plunge tells his story
LAWRENCE, Massachusetts (AP) — One of three boys who survived an icy plunge into the Merrimack River as four friends drowned said Monday he prayed God would rescue him.
Ten-year-old Jaycob Morales also described the horrifying moment when 11-year-old friend William Rodriguez, of Dominican descent, slipped away from him in the ice-covered river.
Initially, police said Rodriguez had Puerto Rican ancestry.
“I was scared and cold, but I was hoping that God would get me out of this mess,” he said on NBC’s Today show.
Another survivor, 9-year-old Francis Spraus, sobbed when asked on the Today show about the terrifying moments when his friends fell through the ice.
“I thank God that God gave me another life,” he said through tears.
Besides William, the others who died Saturday were Christopher Casado, seven, Victor Baez, nine, and eight-year-old Mackendy Constant.
Rodriguez’s parents, Eufemio and Maria Rodriguez, were from Santiago, Dominican Republic. Baez’s parents, Victor Baez and Bartola Gomez, were from Tenares in the northern part of the Caribbean island nation. Casado’s parents, Osiris and Jacqueline Casado, were from Santo Domingo, the capital, said Jorge de Jesus, assistant to Mayor Michael J Sullivan.
Constant’s parents, Julie and Jean Constant, were from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. All four children were born in Lawrence, de Jesus said.
The boys of Dominican ancestry will be buried in Holy Rosary Cemetery in Lawrence, he said. Funeral arrangements for Constant weren’t immediately available.
Lawrence is a working class city of 72,000 residents where 43,000, or about 65 per cent, identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino, according to 2000 US Census figures. The city is 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Boston, the capital, and near the New Hampshire border.
On the Today show, Jaycob said William went out onto the ice as the boys were returning from the Lawrence Boys and Girls Club. Jaycob said Ivan Casado, Christopher’s 9-year-old brother, warned William against going out too far because the ice was thin, only one to two inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) thick.
Jaycob said he saw William fall through the ice.
“I went to go help him out and I fell in,” he said.
“William — I was helping him — and then when I went to go help little Victor … Ivan started screaming William’s name, and William just drowned,” he said.
Jaycob said Mackendy took off his coat and tried to pass it to the boys to pull them out. “Then when they tried to pull us out, everybody fell into the water,” he said.
Ivan, closest to shore in waist-deep water, scrambled up the bank and went for help. He found a neighbor, Jacques Fournier, 63, who called emergency personnel and then tried rescuing them with a rope that proved to be too short.
“My legs started to get stiff and I had a freezing headache,” Francis told the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence. “I was hanging on to Christopher but he started to slip under. I tried holding on to his hand, but it was like he let go.”
The boys who died were trapped under the ice for at least 10 minutes, and were unconscious when they were recovered, Police Chief John J Romero said. They were about 25 feet (7.5 meters) from shore in water up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) deep, he said.
Sullivan announced a memorial fund for the families and said flags in the city would fly at half-mast. Grief counsellors were being sent to city schools to help students.
On Sunday, mourners placed candles bearing the children’s names, religious tokens, flowers and toys on the muddy berm overlooking the river in the city.
“A lot of us are going to miss those kids,” Manuel Reyes, 14, said as he stared at the river that had claimed his basketball buddies.
“We’re feeling a lot of pain but we’re proud of them,” said Eusebio Alicea, 36, the Casado brothers’ uncle. “We consider them little heroes.”
One sign left on the bank read: “I will miss you my friend Christopher, your friend Zachary.”
Rebeccah Perez, 11, who lives nearby, said Mackendy teased her all the time.
“I feel really sad. It’s scary. But everybody who lives around here knows not to go in (the river) there,” she said.
Christopher Santos, 10, said he missed his friend Victor, known as “Ricky.”
“We built clubhouses together and rode our bikes together. I wish he was alive but he’s not,” he said.