Young man drowns after baptism attempting to save swimmer

A Dallas-area man recently drowned in a lake just minutes after being baptized. Lincer Lopez, 21, was at Lake Waxahachie with a church group when he jumped into the water to save a teen swimmer.

“He was a hero,” Lopez’s uncle, Jacobo Lopez, speaking in Spanish, told a radio station.

“He didn’t think twice about rescuing someone else. He didn’t think about the risk that he could die. And he did risk his life to save somebody else’s,” he added.

Both Lopez and teenager Genesis Delgado, were both from the same church.

The uncle said that Lopez was so excited about his profession of faith the next day that he couldn’t sleep the night before.

Jacob Bell watched the tragedy unfold from a nearby boat and saw the teenage girl that Lopez was trying to rescue.

Jacob Bell was emotional sharing the story with a local TV station. Image: video.

“It’s just a tragic, tragic thing,” he told NBC 5 in Dallas. “I’m thankful that I was there, and I’m still struggling with not being there quick enough. Into my boat and gave her CPR, got her breathing again, and got her to the shore.”

When Bell got there, witnesses told him Lopez hadn’t made it back, so Bell returned to the water. “Ran across the dock area into the lake and swam around, and dove down and finally found the boy and pulled him up to safety,” he said. “And he had already passed.”

Bell said Lopez pulled another girl back to safety and died trying to save others in need.

“Lincer was being just a hero and going and helping people,” he said.

Bell said that in the wake of the drowning, he believed more safety resources needed to be put in place at Lake Waxahachie, including measures such as safety netting or trained lifeguards.

“There are that many kids out there, and nobody is out there watching them,” he said. “There should be a park official, somebody out there that has adequate training to be able to pull kids from the lake and resuscitate them, and there just wasn’t any of that.”

The young hero worked in construction and sent most of the money he earned back to Mexico to support his family.

“I thank you, Lincer, for everything you tried to do, and I hope I can see you again soon. I believe I will,” Genesis told WFAA, adding that she wants his family to know that “I’m so sorry for his loss, and I really did love him a lot.”

Supporters have launched an online fundraising campaign to raise money to send Lopez’s body back to Mexico to be buried.

–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice