Upper Township man pulls family from O.C. riptide

Local attorney jumped into ocean to save family after lifeguards were off duty

OCEAN CITY — Local attorney Brandon Walcott was enjoying some time on the beach Friday night with his wife when he spotted a family struggling in the ocean and launched into action to save them.

Tom Stevens, who was on the beach with his wife, witnessed the events.

“A woman and her three children were caught in a riptide and taken straight out to the ocean. Brandon jumped in and saved the youngest boy first, who was approximately 20 yards out in the ocean, then jumped right back in and saved the remaining people, bringing all back to shore safely,” he said, noting the remaining three were about 30 to 40 yards out screaming for help.

Stevens said police and paramedics arrived and everyone was congratulating Walcott but that he was interested only in the health and safety of the family he had saved.

“Everyone on 37th Street beach last night honestly was in awe of Brandon. Those people surely would have died had Brandon not jumped in,” he wrote in an email to The Sentinel.

“It was a scary situation,” Walcott said, noting the children ranged in age from about 5 to 17 and the woman was in her 40s or 50s. “I saw the youngest boy go under water, jumped in, got him out and went right back in for the remaining three.”

“It almost looked calm but I realized it was pulling at an angle. The people were panicking and swimming right into the riptide, wasting their energy, and that’s the opposite of what you should do,” he said. “I told them to stop swimming and I’ll come back and get you.”

The Upper Township resident said one girl was submerged and that he had to dive down to get her.

“I made sure she was conscious and told the others to stop fighting the current. She fought me the whole time and I had to grip her by the shirt. I got her to safety and went back for the other two,” he said. 

Walcott, whose office is on the 200 block of West Avenue, said he knew from growing up at the shore and surfing that the conditions were ripe for a riptide.

“I saw them and said to my wife that in two minutes I am going to have to go in and save those people,” he said. “In about 5 minutes I was doing just that.”

Walcott said there were 30 to 40 people on the beach but that no one else took action.

“My wife was traumatized seeing me do that,” he said. “I had to explain that I am confident in the water and knew right away of the danger. Within 20, 30 seconds the whole family was swept 40 yards off the beach.”

He said he was just in the right place at the right time. “I’m glad that I was there,” he said. “If I had to do it all over again I would.”

Walcott said he told everyone on the beach that riptides are like a mirage and “you don’t realize what it is until it’s too late.”

Ocean City Beach Patrol Operations Chief Erich Becker said almost all rescues on the south end of the island are on unprotected beaches. 

“After hours, when guards are gone, that’s when the rescues get really serious because there are not as many people to call 911, and that’s the only way help would be coming for them.”

He said swimming at unprotected beaches creates a different danger of people going in to help who may not be capable of doing so, noting that five people went in to save four people struggling earlier this month at Ninth Street and there ended up being nine people in danger.

– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff