By Nick Reagan | September 16, 2020 at 9:04 PM EDT - Updated September 17 at 5:02 AM
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The family of Ian Hernandez held a vigil for the 6-year-old boy Wednesday night. Hernandez was killed after getting caught in a rip current off Folly Beach on Sunday.
The boy was pulled from the water by one of several people who jumped in to try and save him. One of those people is Steven Bright.
Bright was sitting behind the family on the beach when it happened.
While Bright was not the one to pull the child from the water, he did swim out to help. He says the whole thing took about eight minutes, but it was more than enough time to get pushed pretty far away from the beach.
“We had been swept out. We were almost in the mouth of the river and then we had to swim back,” Bright said. “So I’d say [Hernandez] got swept out pretty far. He probably got swept a couple hundred yards down the beach. Almost to the mouth of the Folly River.”
Bright started a gofundme page to help the family with hospital and funeral expenses. You can find it here.
“It’s been really emotional for me. I can’t imagine what it has been like for the family,” Bright said. “We couldn’t save the kid but the least we could do is try to collect some money for the family.”
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