- New Jersey dad from a river after ‘struggling to maintain his balance’ in shallow water
- The body of the unidentified father was retrieved three hours later
A man died after rushing into a New Jersey river to rescue his three children, authorities have confirmed.
The incident occurred around 2pm Wednesday near Franklin Township, in a stretch of the Millstone River.
The body of the unidentified man, a 42-year-old from South River, was pulled by dive teams some three hours later, after cops arrived at the scene to find the deceased’s three accompanied kids along the shoreline.
Witnesses later told cops the kids – aged 13, 11 and 8 – had got into the water before their father, when they became ‘distressed’.
The dad, whose identity is being withheld until officers notify his next of kin, then dashed in to heroically pull them to a shallower part of the river.
But once the kids were safe, witnesses said the dad was struggling to keep his balance and ultimately slipped beneath the surface. Cops are investigating the incident.
‘The children went into the water and quickly became distressed,’ a news release from Franklin Township police read, also revealing that a 911 call made at 2:13pm alerted officers about the situation.
‘The victim went into the water to help, pull his children to the shallow water, but struggled to maintain his balance,’ cops continued, as a section of a highly trafficked road adjacent to the 38-mile-long tributary remained cordoned off.
Franklin Township Police Lt. Vincent Wilson would then confirm what many in the small suburban town suspected – that the doting father had died at some point after the 911 call was made, and that his body had since been recovered.
In the update, Wilson said the deceased was recovered by members the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office dive team – who were seen searching the water earlier in the day – at approximately 5:28pm.
The children, whose sexes were not given, were treated at the scene, the lieutenant stated, adding they did not require additional medical attention after that initial treatment.
As they were being treated, cops said, first responders encountered some difficulty in their attempts to locate the victim – who was nowhere to be found when officers arrived.
NJ State and State Park Police also participated in the extensive search effort, cops said – though it was ultimately members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Dive Team who retrieved the man’s body.
The factors contributing to and surrounding the incident, meanwhile, remain unknown, as officers with the Franklin Township Police Department continue to investigate.
Aerial photos snapped from the scene by New Jersey 101.5 earlier in the day showed the hours-long search in the section of the river, which is a common site for both boating and swimming.
As for the children, police say they have released them from their supervision. They did not require medical attention.
