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Young Marine Saves 11-Year-Old Girl From Drowning Death
Photo by airbutchie via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
There's nothing better than a heart-warming hero story to celebrate the 4th of July, and for today's edition we have 16-year-old Christian Lozano of Bakersfield to thank.
Lozano was at the Ventura Pier last Friday when he heard a young girl screaming in the water. Having trained as a Young Marine, and being an experienced boogie boarder, he sped out through the waves, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in.
"She was shaking, she was trying to kick," Lozano told KTLA. He was able to get through the water and get her to safety.
The girl, 11-year-old Maya Harding, was there to visit her grandparents and had been dragged out into the ocean by the current. Her family was there during her near-death experience, and her grandfather, Paul Harding, told the station that had she not made it, it would have been the second person in his life to drown at such a young age.
"My older brother at the age of 11 drowned in a swimming accident so this added a little higher level of terror to the experience."
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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