Comment Sixteen-year-old Corion Evans watched from his car as three teenage girls descended a boat ramp on the Pascagoula River in southern Mississippi. The girl driving later told authorities the GPS had malfunctioned and she didn’t realize it was driving her and the other girls into the water early Sunday morning. As the car began to sink, the three escaped and climbed on top of it, according to a statement from the Moss Point Police Department. “I thought, ‘There’s no way they drove into that water,’” Evans said. Evans said he took off running toward the river and when he got there, he saw them in the water, yelling, “Help me!” “I took off my shirt and took off my shoes and threw my phone down and just jumped in the water,” he said Thursday afternoon in a telephone interview with the Washington Post. Evans helped get all three girls to shore, as well as a Moss Point police officer who had responded to the scene but was pulled underwater during the rescue attempt. The teenager and Officer Garry Mercer have since been recognized by Mayor Billy Knight (D) with certificates of commendation. Knight said the board of aldermen wanted Evans to know “how much we appreciate his courage and heroism.” “We are always proud when our young people do the right thing because many times our young people don’t do the right thing. This young man was very selfless when he decided to jump into the water without even thinking about it to save these young people,” Knight told The Post. Their dad was drowning. They saved him using CPR seen in movie scenes. Evans, a rising senior at Pascagoula High School, said he and some other teenagers hung out late Saturday night and into Sunday morning. He was getting ready to go home and got into his car, which was in a parking lot under Interstate 10 not far from the river. He said the teenage girls, who have not been publicly identified, got into their car and plugged a home address into the GPS, but the GPS seemed to predict the girls were on the freeway — not under it. Evans said the driver forgot to turn on her headlights and blindly followed directions, which led them straight down the boat ramp into the water. Once Evans reached them, he said he grabbed the girl closest to him and helped her back to shore. He then returned to pick up the others, helping them onto the top of the vehicle. During Evans’ rescue efforts, Mercer arrived on the scene. He said he quickly removed his vest, body camera and gun belt and began swimming toward the girls, who he said were afraid to swim. Mercer said he was trying to help one of the girls, but about halfway back to shore, she went under the water and began to panic, pulling the officer with her. That’s when Evans showed up to save them, he said. “If he wasn’t there to help, who knows?” the officer said of Evans. “Anything could have happened. I already swallowed water.” “I couldn’t do it alone,” he added. In the end, Evans helped bring all three girls to safety, according to authorities. The girls are “doing well,” Moss Point Police Chief Brandon Ashley said in the statement. Watch female elephants stage a dramatic rescue of a drowning baby elephant Evans said he had planned to leave earlier but sat in his car for a while. In fact, his mother, Marquita Evans, said he missed the curfew. Later he found out why. “He had a good reason, so I couldn’t be mad,” he told The Post. Evans, who is a wide receiver on his high school’s football team, said he has been swimming since he was in preschool. He said he wants to go to college and become a physical therapist or go into sports medicine. Evans said he spoke to the girls after the incident and they told him how grateful they were that he saved them. “I’m happy that everybody was safe, that everybody made it,” he said. “I’m glad no one lost their life that night.”
