A Georgia father drowned earlier this month after saving his 8-year-old daughter from a dangerous rip current in Florida.
Thomas Zakrewski, 46, drowned off the coast of Upper Captiva Island.
This was after he, his daughter and at least four other members of his family battled trouble in the water while walking along a sandbar.
The distress call went out at around 5:30 p.m. that day and the Upper Captiva Fire District arrived at the scene to discover between six and eight people struggling to get out of the water.
Chief of the island’s fire department, Jason Martin, says that four members of the family managed to escape but Zakrewski was swept away by the outgoing rip tide after passing his daughter to her mother.
Along with law enforcement, the department spent three hours searching for the father before divers from the U.S. Coast Guard stepped in to assist with the effort.
A video from the sheriff’s office reveal searchers scanning the waters by both boat and helicopter.
The rescue team located Zakrewski’s body later that evening about a half-mile from where he was last seen.
This year, 28 deaths in the US have been officially attributed to rip currents according to the National Weather Service.
Twelve of them have occurred in Florida alone but authorities are determining if Zakrewski’s death was the result of being caught in one.