A San Jose man died after saving his son from drowning in a Coyote Creek swimming hole just north of Morgan Hill, according to authorities.
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call reporting the incident about 2 p.m. July 16, according to Sheriff’s Sgt. Rich Glennon. A group of children and adults were swimming in an area where Coyote Creek meets a pond on Ogier Avenue, behind the Parkway Lakes RV park.
Glennon explained the edges of the water were about knee-deep, but the depth “increases dramatically” into a moving current farther from shore. When the group of children waded into this deeper area, they had trouble staying above water and the adults responded.
The father of one of the children, a 5-year-old boy, jumped into the water fully clothed and helped the children, Glennon said. After he handed his son off to another adult, the man, later identified as 35-year-old Saul Garcia of San Jose, went underwater and did not come back up.
The sheriff’s dive team and a boat equipped with sonar detection devices arrived on scene to search for Garcia’s body, Glennon said. They found his body about 6:20 p.m. under about 15 feet of water.
Garcia’s family set up a page on gofundme.com shortly after his death, to raise money for his wife and the couple’s two young children. The page, titled “SAUL GARCIA AND FAMILY,” says there were six children—including his own—swimming at the time Garcia and other adults noticed they were in trouble July 16. Garcia “showed no fear going into the water and saving all 6 of the children lives before the water drowned him,” the gofundme page adds.
