A trip on the Potomac River for the Fourth of July ended in death Tuesday night.
At about 5 p.m., three people tried to swim to a rock island, but one of them died in the process, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Daniel Aldazabal Cucho, 44, from Germantown, Md. Man, was fishing with two friends on the banks of the Potomac River when he fell in and drowned.
Albert Barnes, a fisherman who has spent a decade on the river, said, “It’s not that deep, but it can sweep you right out.” “That’s the problem with most people: they don’t respect it [the river].”
Cucho yelled for help, and then all of a sudden, he went under the water. His two friends tried to help him, but they couldn’t.
Dianne Collins is also a fan of rivers, and she says that the part of the river where the drowning happened can be dangerous.
“It has some swift currents,” Collins said. “You have to wear a life jacket if you’re not a really good swimmer and you’re not comfortable with the currents.”
Barnes said that on the water, anything can happen.
“Sometimes there are things that happen that are just out of your control, but most of the time it’s just that people don’t respect the water,” Barnes said.
Dive teams and fire department boats tried to save Cucho’s life. They brought him to a doctor on land in Jefferson County, West Virginia, where he died.
The Jefferson County medical examiner will write up a report.
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