A search is underway for Shad Gaspard after the former WWE star went missing while swimming at Venice Beach in California on Sunday afternoon, according to TMZ.
The Brooklyn native was reportedly swimming with his 10-year-old son when they got caught in a rip current. Lifeguards were able to save Gaspard’s son first, at the 39-year-old’s direction, a witness told TMZ, but they were not able to do the same for Gaspard.
“We had one of our lifeguards go out to make a double rescue of a father and a son,” Kenichi Haskett, Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division, told the Daily Mail. “The father unfortunately got pushed down by a wave as they were getting pulled out of the current. The lifeguard rescued and grabbed the boy, the son, and tried to grab the father as well. He ended up getting pushed down by a wave and we couldn’t find him and we immediately started with our rescue boats, called in additional lifeguards to search that location of his dad.”
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As of 7 a.m. Monday, the search for Gaspard was still ongoing — with divers, rescue boats and helicopters assisting — as his son and wife, Siliana, remained at the beach, the Daily Mail reported.
“I saw the young boy who was inconsolable and his mother who had her arms wrapped around him,” one witness told the Daily Mail. “The whole thing was just heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking to see this mother and child in complete despair.”
Two messages posted to Gaspard’s Instagram story stated he was missing and was last seen on Sunday at Marina Del Rey Beach.
Gaspard partnered with JTG to form Cryme Tyme as they began wrestling in the WWE in 2006 and made their final appearance in 2010.