Father dies saving children from rip current at Florida beach

Ryan Jennings was swimming off Juno Beach on the afternoon of April 1 with his 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter when a rip current ensnared them, according to a police report. He threw his son Jax out of harm's way and instructed him to get help, his widow Emily Jennings said. He held his daughter Charlie above water until she could be brought to safety, Emily Jennings added. The children later told officers they were struggling in the water when their father came into the ocean to save them, the police report stated.

Lifeguards pulled four people to shore, the Palm Beach Post reported, citing local emergency response officials. Paramedics took three people to the hospital, according to the same source. Juno Beach police officers helped pull Jennings out of the water, an incident report from the department noted. Officers encountered him unconscious, unresponsive, and not breathing, they said. Jennings was brought to a hospital in Jupiter and pronounced dead by a doctor, police said. The specific medical cause of his death, such as drowning or cardiac arrest, has not been disclosed, and the current condition of the three hospitalized individuals remains unknown.

Conditions on the day of Jennings' death were consistent with the potential for rip current activity, local emergency response officials indicated. The exact strength and duration of the rip current at Juno Beach on April 1 have not been detailed, and it is unclear why lifeguards were not typically patrolling that area.

Emily Jennings was on the beach building sandcastles with the couple's younger daughter Bowie and a niece at the time of the incident, she said. She and Ryan had just learned they were expecting their fourth child, she added. Ryan Jennings was 46 years old, and Emily Jennings is 35 years old.

Emily Jennings described Ryan as her soulmate and best friend, saying he gave her the most beautiful 12 years of her life and was always their calm in any storm, according to her social media posts. She was a single mother when she met Ryan, and he gave her and her son a place to stay after a fire destroyed her apartment, she recounted. Ryan Jennings took in Emily's son as his own, she added.

Unanswered questions persist about the specific actions taken by lifeguards and paramedics during the rescue and medical response. Emily Jennings expressed her grief on social media, stating she is not sure how to go on ever again and that his last gift to her was returning her children alive.