A Baton Rouge teenager is missing after getting swept up in rough waters while on a beach trip this past weekend, a Mobile station is reporting.
WALA reports Tyreke Walker was celebrating his birthday with family in Orange Beach when he disappeared this past Saturday. He turned 14 years old just days earlier.
“I just wish that he comes back,” his mother Canhtam Nguyen told WALA.
Officials in Alabama said it happened shortly after flags at the beach were changed to reflect the dangerous conditions.
Tyreke's father, Clint, nearly drowned trying to pull his son to safety. He was rushed to an emergency room after inhaling too much water.
“He’s like ‘I’m sorry, I can’t come back,’” Clint Walker said. “I grabbed him, and I had him, but the water was just pulling us and pulling us. Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to make it. I lost his grip. I kept getting thrown to the bottom of the water, and somehow I made it to shore, and he didn’t. I just wish I would’ve held on longer.”
To read the station's full story and see the interview, click here.
