Boy rescues 4-year-old from drowning

Kyle Howard was helping relatives tend to a campfire on the banks of Lake Gaston when he heard screams coming from the water’s edge.

Howard, 12, a Tucker Creek resident in Havelock, was with 20 other family members for a reunion at Thanksgiving when his 4-year-old cousin, Jonathan Millett, fell off a pier and into the water.

"Everybody started screaming ‘Jonathan’s drowning,’" Howard recalled.

Howard, a wiry wrestler for Tucker Creek Middle School in the 84- to 93-pound weight class, bolted for the shoreline where Jonathan Millett was struggling to stay above water.

"He started running as fast as he could and jumped in with all his clothes on," said Mirium Millett, 7, who is Jonathan’s older sister.

"I went over there and took my shoes off and I jumped in and grabbed him," Howard said. "He couldn’t swim and everybody was panicking."

"He was doing a half doggie paddle, half splash," Mirium Millett said. "He was covered with his water and it was right above his chin. It was 8-feet deep."

Jonathan and several other young children had been on the short pier where they had spent time fishing when the young boy fell into the water.

"He was real scared. He was crying," said Howard. "It was cold, like 50 degrees."

The shock of the chilly water stunned Kyle.

"When I jumped into the water I couldn’t breathe for some reason. I couldn’t swim real well or concentrate at all," Howard said.

Howard figured he was in the water about 10 or 20 seconds before he was able to pull Jonathan to a ladder to the pier and, with the help of others, get the little boy out of the lake with Kyle pushing from below.

"Jonathan was crying when he came out of the water," said Sarah Millett, Jonathan’s mother, from Illinois. "He said he fell in and he couldn’t touch the bottom. He said he was scared and that Kyle jumped in and then he wasn’t scared."

Jonathan’s parents were "pretty rattled" immediately after the incident, according to Bobbi Howard, Kyle’s mother.

"He saw my son in the water and he saw the water was coming in his mouth and he was struggling to get up," said Sarah Millett. "Kyle just ran and jumped in with all his clothes on and everything."

"Kyle’s very icky about jumping in creeks where it’s all icky," said Bobbi Howard.

The muck didn’t stop Kyle from jumping in this time though.

Kyle said, of course, he’d do it again.

"Yeah, he’s my cousin," Kyle said.

The families will always remember the reunion when Kyle jumped in to save Jonathan.

"He was named ‘Hero of the Reunion,’" Sarah Millett said.