Sheriff’s office: Good Samaritans save drowning victim in Stafford Co.

First responders in Stafford County, Virginia, were called to a drowning on Falmouth Beach on Tuesday, but when they got there, the victim was breathing on his own. Now, they’re making sure to credit the good Samaritans who saved the man’s life.

The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Wednesday that when their deputies and fire and rescue personnel got to the beach a little after 5:30 p.m., the 21-year-old whose drowning they were supposedly responding to had been revived by Darius Burr, an off-duty member of the U.S. Secret Service.

Burr helped pull the man out of the water; he was unresponsive at the time, the sheriff’s office said.

Burr then performed CPR with the help of another beach-goer, whom the sheriff’s office didn’t identify, and after a few compressions, the man was breathing on his own.

The drowning victim was taken to a hospital as a precaution, the office said.

“The Stafford sheriff’s office would like to commend Mr. Burr and the other good Samaritans for their actions in preventing a tragedy,” the statement said.

Rick Massimo

Rick Massimo came to WTOP, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child. He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."

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