A San Francisco man and his 9-year-old son drowned late Friday afternoon in the frigid bay near Bonita Cove when a large wave swept the boy into the water while they were fishing and the father drowned while trying to save his son, according to a spokesman for the coroner division of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
Juan Escamillo-Rojas, 37, and his son Juan Carlos Escamillo-Monroy, 9, were pronounced dead at around 5:30 p.m. Friday at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Golden Gate station in Sausalito after being pulled out of the bay, Sheriff’s Lt. Keith Boyd said.
Authorities were called to the scene at around 5 p.m. Friday when the Coast Guard received reports of a pair of distressed swimmers near the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, Coast Guard officials said.
Boyd said that preliminary information indicated that three people were fishing along the shoreline near Bonita Cove when a large wave swept them into the water. Escamillo-Rojas and another man were able to hold onto the rocks, but Escamillo-Monroy was not.
Escamillo-Rojas swam out to try and save his son but was unable to make it back to shore after reaching his son, Boyd said.
Personnel from the Coast Guard, Southern Marin Fire Protection District, Tiburon Fire Department, National Park Service and Marin County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area.
Escamillo-Rojas and Escamillo-Monroy were pulled from the water by a Tiburon Fire Department boat and taken to a Coast Guard station for evaluation by medics, according to the Coast Guard.
They were pronounced dead after arriving at the station, Boyd said.
