FORT WORTH, Texas — A family is mourning the loss of a father-of-three after he drowned while trying to save two boys in the West Fork of the Trinity River Sunday afternoon.
According to the Fort Worth Fire Department, the Crowley man jumped into the river at Gateway Park when he attempted to save a child but never resurfaced.
While FWFD said the man saved one child, his family told WFAA he saved two children.
The family identified the drowning victim as 38-year-old Pascual Garcia Torres.
According to Garcia Torres’s sister-in-law, Valeria Perez, the family was out fishing at the park when they witnessed two boys struggling to swim. Perez said the family didn’t know the two boys, but Garcia Torres instantly jumped in to rescue them.
“We were just all supposed to have a good time. I’m still in shock,” Perez said. “He got one kid, went back for the other one when he went for the other one, that’s when he started screaming for help himself in Spanish, ‘Ayudame.’ Those were his last words.”
FWFD and its dive team used drone capabilities to locate Torres’s body. Crews recovered his body Sunday evening.
Garcia Torres had just arrived in the U.S. seven months ago, his family said. He was the sole provider of his family and had a wife and three children in his home country of Mexico.
“It’s so hard,” Perez said. “How do you tell a three-year-old your dad’s not coming home?”
Perez said Garcia Torres’s three-year-old son continues to call and leave messages, asking when her dad will return.
“You always hear stories, but you never think it's gonna be your family,” Perez said.
His family has launched a GoFundMe in an effort to raise enough money to send Garcia Torres’s body back to his home country. It’s his widow’s wish.
“He was just trying to do a good deed,” Perez said.
In the end, Garcia Torres died a hero.