Rashaun Rucker is an accomplished, nationally known artist, an art teacher, a former award-winning photojournalist and photo editor for the Detroit Free Press, and an avid fisherman.
Now he can add hero to his list of accomplishments after he rescued two young brothers who went into the water on Belle Isle last week and likely would have drowned without Rucker’s quick actions.
“Thank God Mr. Rucker was there,” said Angela Briscoe, 69, of Detroit, a retired elementary school teacher who took her 10- and 12-year-old neighbor boys, who call her grandma, to go fishing on Belle Isle on June 16.
Rucker, 47, who teaches art at a Detroit K-8 school, was fishing at one of his favorite spots from a kayak launch along one of the island’s waterways that Tueday morning when the two brothers, who happened to be former students of his, arrived unexpectedly with Briscoe.
Rucker said he was talking to the 12-year-old when he heard a noise and turned to see bubbles in the water. The 10-year-old had fallen in. Then the 12-year-old jumped in to try to save his brother. The boys did not know how to swim, and neither did Rucker nor Briscoe.
Rucker said he was able to quickly grab the 12-year-old’s hand and pull him back to the kayak launch. The boy held on to the side of the launch while Rucker turned his attention to the 10-year-old who kept going under the water but was too far out to reach with his hand.
“I was panicking in my mind because I’m like, “Oh my God, he’s gonna die.’ I wasn’t outwardly panicking, thank God,” Rucker recalled on Saturday.
Knowing he would likely drown himself if he jumped in the water, Rucker remembered his telescopic net in his fishing bag and grabbed it. It took a few tries, but he was able to get the fishing net around the boy’s head and pull him close enough to the kayak launch and grab his sweatshirt to pull him up out of the water. Then he helped the 12-year-old out of water.
“If that didn’t go 1000% right, we could have lost multiple lives, two or three,” Rucker said.
Rucker, who lives in Grosse Pointe Park, said it was one of the first times he’s seen a student outside of the classroom, and that he’s never seen a student out fishing at Belle Isle, where he goes multiple times a week.
“I really believe it was like God to bring us in those same spots together because Belle Isle is massive, and the chances of you being besides somebody that needs help is kind of slim,” Rucker said. “It definitely was a divine thing.”
The incident taught Briscoe the importance of swim lessons and wearing life jackets near deep water, she said.
“Many inner-city children do not know how to swim because swimming pools are not as accessible for them,” Biscoe said. “This could have been a tragedy. Instead it is a lesson learned for all of us.”
Rucker said he remembers reading and covering drowning stories as a journalist, and knew from those stories that he should not jump in, especially because he doesn’t know how to swim. He said he’s considering taking swim lessons and that maybe people should have a plan in case of water safety events in the same way they do for fires.
He said he couldn’t put into words how scary the incident was. He almost let fear stop him from going back to Belle Isle to fish, then decided against it and went back two days later and ended up catching a fish bigger than his head.
“I can’t allow fear to stop me from doing what I love,” he said. “It was funny because I caught one of the biggest fish I’ve ever caught at Belle Isle that day. I thought maybe that’s the universe paying me back for a decent deed.”
Briscoe lost her son to illness in 2014 and said she knows the devastation the drowning could have caused the boys’ family. She said she will never forget Rucker.
“Mr. Rucker, in my opinion, is a very humble man. He didn’t want any recognition for his heroic behavior. He just happened to be where the boys and I were fishing,” she said. “Mr. Rucker is my angel.”
Contact Natalie Davies at ndavies@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former Freep photo editor saved 2 students from drowning on Belle Isle
Reporting by Natalie Davies, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Natalie Davies, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
