A Sacramento fisherman heroically saved four children this week after their mother was shot while driving, sending their car veering into the Sacramento River.
Harrell Fischer recounted the harrowing story to NBC station KCRA 3, explaining that he was working on his boat on the river around 9:30 p.m. Monday night when he and another fisherman noticed taillights nearby.
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“We hopped in his boat, and we went over and I started hearing screaming,” Fischer said. “We went right up to the door, and we opened up the passenger door, and I saw a little face looking up at me, and I about just melted.”
“It was intense,” Fischer said. “And then I saw two little hands poke out too, you know, like ‘help me.’ ”
Fischer said that he immediately started helping the children out of the submerged car and into the boat.
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“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s four kids in that car,’ ” he said, adding that the oldest child told him his mother had been shot.
“This little 6-year-old kid says to me, ‘You don’t come back from a shot like that,’ ” Fischer said.
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The woman driving the car was pronounced dead on the scene, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release Tuesday, and had a gunshot wound on her upper body. An adult male was also saved from the vehicle and has been arrested as a suspect in the shooting.
“Although the motive for the shooting is not yet known, detectives believe the male shot the female while she was driving, causing her to veer the vehicle into the river,” the sheriff’s office said.
Mandiko Kwadzo
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Mandiko Kwadzo, 27, was arrested by homicide detectives, charged with murder and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail. It is unclear if he legal representation at this time.
Kwadzo and the driver were in a domestic partnership and share some of the children who were in the car, the sheriff’s office said.
The woman’s identity has not yet been released. Detectives are encouraging anyone with information to call the sheriff’s office at (916) 874-511.