Kevin Suarez hadn’t intended to become a hero on July 12 when he heard people screaming from the waters off Ellis Island, but he leaped in to help rescue two young girls, one of whom would likely have drowned.
“It was just a reaction,” he said.
A worker for Statue Cruises at Liberty State Park, Suarez usually helped people safely get on and off the excursion boats. But he frequently has to shout for private boats to stay clear of the area near the island, which is marked off by buoys.
“People try to get close to take pictures,” Suarez said. “They’re not supposed to get within that area and so we have to call the police.”
On this occasion, the 15-foot board drifted into the prohibited area. Suarez saw it, and then in the blink of an eye, the boat capsized, trapping a 5-year-old girl beneath it, and scattering five other passengers in the rough waters.
“It was just a reaction.” – Kevin Suarez
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“I tried to ask the others how many people were on the boat,” he said. “But they kept yelling for me to save the girl. That’s when I realized there was a girl under the boat.”
And the boat was sinking.
Suarez, 20, is a downtown Jersey City resident, and attending Montclair State University with the aspirations of becoming a cop or a fireman.
A five and half year employee of Statue Cruises, Suarez had asked to be assigned to safety duties, something that was granted to him only this year.
But he didn’t think he would have to actually perform a life-saving act. In fact, he wasn’t even scheduled to work that day, but had changed shifts with another employee – something that ultimately resulted in saving of at least one, and possibly two lives.
With instinct telling him that he had to act, Suarez leaped off the 15-foot wall into the rough water and then swam about 75 feet against the rip tide to reach the boat.
When he realized the girl was trapped beneath, he tried to reach under and grab her.
“I got a hold of her shoulder, but she had ropes on her,” he said.
With a little more effort, he managed to bring her to the surface where she gasped for air.
Second girl
She needed help to reach the island, but she wasn’t the only one. A 9-year-old girl was also adrift, and so he took them both and swam back the 75-feet to the wall to wait for the police to pull them out.
“The younger girl was crying a lot,” he said. “When I asked why, she asked me if there were sharks in the water. She didn’t want to be eaten by a shark. I assured her that she was safe. But that broke the tension for me.”
A long time swimmer
An athlete, Suarez was a member of Hudson Catholic High School’s championship baseball teams several years ago, but it was his skill as a swimmer that allowed him to help make the rescue.”
“I learned to swim when I was very young,” he said.
Rafael Abreu, director of Sales and Marketing for Statue Cruises, called Suarez “a stellar employee.”
“While our other employees did their part in the rescue effort, Kevin was the one who jumped into the water,” Abreu said.
Cynthia, Suarez’s mother, said she was very proud of her son, and said that he is a product of a neighborhood that helped to raise him well.
“It takes a village to raise a child,” she said.
Suarez, who attended Rafael Cordro School and then Hudson Catholic, is a member of Citrine Church, where he participates in its youth group and local outreach and relief projects.
Councilman Daniel Rivera said it was no accident that Suarez wanted to become a firefighter. “Firefighters save lives,” he said.
All the occupants of the capsized boat eventually made it to shore in good condition.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.
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Four-year-old rescued from burning building
Three cops and an off-duty firefighter helped rescue a 4-year old girl trapped in an apartment on the second floor of a Randolph Avenue home on July 14.
Police officers Joseph Labarbera, Gabriel Moreano, and Rubin Munoz arrived at the scene to learn from off duty Fire Inspector Luis Colon that someone was trapped in the building.
Colon had seen the child crying from the window. While he grabbed a ladder and accessed the second floor to rescue Monica Campbell, the officers went into the ground floor to search for additional people. Finding none, Labarbera and Moreano went to the bottom of the ladder as Colon handed them down the child.
Campbell was given oxygen at the scene but didn’t require further treatment.
Munoz suffered smoke inhalation and they were taken to Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health.
Labarbera, who was president of his police academy class, was sworn in as a police officer in June 2015. Moreano received recognition for his efforts in collecting more than 50 illegal guns in 2013. – Al Sullivan