A kayaker’s rescue of a 6-year-old boy is going viral after the boy was found alone, being pulled by the current on the St. Louis River in Minnesota.
The boy reportedly got separated from his parents’ sailboat when he got caught in the current and pulled further away from them.
David Jones Jr., an avid outdoorsman, was fishing on the river when he heard a terrifying scream.
That’s when he noticed a 6-year-old, who has not been identified, frantically trying to swim toward his kayak, screaming for his dad.
Jones had first noticed the boy when he put in his kayak at the boat ramp. The child swimming toward the main channel alongside a sailboat.
His level of concern rose after watching the boy’s father pull the anchor and vanish around a bend.
“I hit the record button on my phone and I was fighting the fish for 8 or 9 minutes maybe, and that’s when I heard the scream,” said Jones, who subsequently captured the whole rescue on video.
Jones says he immediately bit off his line and paddled over to the little boy.
The boy grabbed ahold of his kayak, and Jones was able to paddle him about 300 yards back to safety.
In a resurfaced video from July 2022 that’s drawn more than 10 million views on the Newsner TikTok channel, Jones can be heard encouraging the boy to be strong and hold on.
“I believe he was in the early stages of hypothermia. He couldn’t remember how old he was. He could barely remember his name,” said David. “His face was turning blue and he was constantly telling me how cold he was.”
Thanks to his law-enforcement background, Jones was able to de-escalate the situation and help the boy stay calm, despite his own questions: Why did the dad pull up the anchor without his son in the boat? Why haven’t the parents come back looking for their child?
There was no time for questions. Jones’ only concern was getting the boy to safety.
