2 Dead From Jumping in Potomac River Near Key Bridge
By • August 28, 2017 0 6982
Two men died from jumping into the Potomac River Sunday evening, Aug. 27.
Calvin Cerpas and Danny Garcia were both killed, D.C. police said.
Both men were 30 and lived in Manassas, Virginia, according to News4. The men had been friends since childhood.
One died in the Potomac River and another was taken out of the river to George Washington University Hospital in critical condition and later died. The rescue effort involved D.C. Fire and EMS with four boats and a rescue K-9, the U.S. Park Police helicopter, the Metropolitan Police and Harbor Patrol.
Apparently, the men went into the river from the ruins of the old Aqueduct Bridge, the predecessor to Key Bridge. The old bridge abutment — just west of the Potomac Boat Club, Key Bridge Boathouse and Key Bridge — is on the banks of the Potomac River.
According to WTOP, one man was found around 9:30 p.m. He was taken to the hospital in very critical condition. Another man was found around 11 p.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to News 4, a woman who knows both of the men told a reporter, “They were all hanging out on the Aqueduct Bridge in Georgetown when one of them decided to jump into the river. The other man saw his friend was in trouble in the water so he went to help him.”
“We didn’t see anything, but we heard the splash and we saw there was somebody. There was a boat there, and he was trying to hold onto the side of the boat, but he couldn’t. He kept trying to hold onto it, but he couldn’t, and so we just saw him just go under,” a women on the scene told News 4.
