STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — Friends and family are calling a Tennessee teenager a hero after he saved one of his friends from Stone Mountain Lake but drowned during the rescue.
Nirmal Rai, 17, originally is from Nepal, but lived in Nashville. He and his friends and family were visiting Stone Mountain when the drowning happened Sunday evening around 7 p.m.
His cousin, San Rai, told Channel 2's Richard Elliot that Rai joined others in an attempt to swim from Indian Island over to the smaller Goat Island when one of the friends got into trouble halfway.
"One friend's drowning, so he jumped out to save him," said San Rai. "He saved him, but couldn't save himself."
Tammy Wilkerson was fishing nearby and saw the commotion.
"I fished out here 20 years, and I never, ever seen anyone drown, because Stone Mountain has all these signs up saying no swimming in the water," Wilkerson told Elliot.
Stone Mountain spokesman John Bankhead said park police along with the Department of Natural Resources used sonar to search for Rai, but had to call off the attempt around 4 a.m.
Crews resumed at 8 a.m. Monday morning and located the body in 31 feet of water around 10 a.m.
A Georgia State Patrol drive team recovered the body. It was taken to the state crime lab for an autopsy.
This is the first drowning at Stone Mountain since a kayaker drowned four years ago.
WSBTV
