LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Family and friends are grieving after the accidental drowning of an 18-year-old boy.
“It hurts to have to watch your baby fight for his life,” said DeShawn King’s mother Claudette King.
The tattoo of his name on her arm is now keeping her connection with her son close.
‘He was my strength. I would depend on him a lot,” she said.
Deshawn King was spending his July 4 weekend like many teenagers by enjoying time with friends at Rough River Lake in Grayson County.
But the 18-year-old couldn't swim and when he jumped off a dock, he didn't come back up. That's when his friends jumped into the water, then brought him back to shore where they started CPR.
“His friend was like, you know, you're going to have to get down here. Your son, he jumped in the water,” said King.
She arrived at the hospital to find her son breathing through a machine. She said he kept going into cardiac arrest. That's when they tried to move him from hospital in Litchfield and closer to Louisville.
“We tried to move him a second time, and the second time we moved him he flat lined again,” she said.
Now his mother, his brother, his friends left with so many questions.
“Knowing that he couldn't swim, I figured his friends also weren't either, so why let him jump in?” asked his brother Spencer Jacobs.
The 18-year-old was taken too soon but left quite an impression on those who knew him.
“He cared about everybody, no matter who you were, he didn't care. He would have you talk to him and he would help,” said friend Savannah Woodland.
While the autopsy is still pending, the coroner said the cause of death is suspected drowning. Now his mother is using Deshawn's tragic story as a reminder to parents to talk to their children and warn them about the dangers of deep water.
“I lost my child at a young age due to something that he got so excited about and he didn't take the time to think if the water was shallow especially since he didn't know how to swim,” said King.