A hero police officer drowned while trying to rescue a boy, 14, who later died in a Massachusetts hospital.
Enmanuel ‘Manny’ Familia, 38, and four other officers threw themselves into a pond in Green Hill Park in Worcester to save Troy Love.
Tragedy struck when the officers realised one of their group had gone missing on Friday afternoon.
Manny, who worked for the Worcester Police Department for five years, was pulled to shore at 2.28pm. The dad-of-two was rushed to hospital but died shortly after.
An hour after finding Manny, divers found Troy who also died in hospital.
Troy’s heartbroken older brother Joseph Guy said his brother ‘still had a heartbeat’ after being in the pond for 90 minutes – but medics couldn’t ‘get him warm enough so had to pull the plug’.
He fought back tears as he told Boston25 News: ‘The officer that died, he tried, I met his family at the hospital and apologized.’
Speaking about his brother, Joseph said: ‘He died happy he always like to do fun stuff, he was a good kid he didn’t deserve to die like that.
‘That police officer, he got in there. I saw him, he got in there with his belt and everything he was trying to save my brother’s life. He died a hero.’
Chief Steven Sargent, of the Worcester Police Department, said his force had lost a ‘brother, friend and a partner’ who was ‘selfless’ until the very end.
Jose Rosado, a devastated high school friend of Manny’s said: ‘He was just a good person all around. It’s just sad.’
Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty paid tribute on Friday, saying: ‘This is the type of person that Manny was, someone who would lay down his life for someone else’s child.’
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