ANCLOTE KEY, Fla. — Grateful doesn’t begin to describe how Amanda Johnson feels about a man she now calls her family’s guardian angel.
What You Need To Know
- A family was spending the afternoon boating and tubing a rip current grabbed the two boys
- Just as Amanda Johnson cried for help, Deputy Anthony LaCorte and his wife were in earshot on their Jet Skis
- Amanda says getting eldest son swimming lessons helped save them
They all met last Tuesday afternoon around Anclote Island. The Johnsons and her two boys were spending the afternoon boating and tubing, when Amanda says she suddenly found herself in one of the most terrifying moments any parent could experience. A rip current grabbed both of her boys.
“They were in eyeshot,” Amanda said. “I could still see them, and I just took off down the island and went waist deep, and knew I couldn’t get to them. There was nothing.”
But in that helpless moment of fear, Amanda said she also had hope — knowing that her oldest son had taken swimming lessons.
“I kept seeing one head, and I kept thinking the young one was gone, so he went under and he was pulling him up,” she said. “He basically was sacrificing himself to save his little brother.”
Just as she cried for help, Deputy Anthony LaCorte and his wife were in earshot on their Jet Skis.
“I was there for a reason, I guess,” said LaCorte.
Within minutes, he had the boys out of the water and on their way to safety.
What seems to be a miracle for the Johnsons to witness comes naturally to LaCorte. He is a corrections officer at the Pinellas County Jail.
But he says his willingness to help goes even deeper than that.
“I’m also a father, and that’s the first thing when you hear that in somebody’s voice, you know they need help.”
That helped turn a near tragedy into a celebration between new friends, and a take away that Amanda hopes parents learn from this.
“The swimming lessons at least put that seed in my oldest one’s head to float. We’re in Florida. We’re surrounded by water and pools, and you still hear about children who drown in pools and the ocean. And I just feel like that should on every parent’s to-do list.”
