A 37-year-old Pennsylvania man is being hailed a hero for rescuing a drowning 9-year-old boy from a New Jersey hotel pool.
Authorities say Randolph Tajada-Perez was checking into the LaQuinta hotel in Fairfield around 6:30 p.m. Thursday when a man ran to the front desk, saying the little boy was under water in the deep end.
Tajada-Perez ran to the pool area and, despite not knowing how to swim, jumped into the water and was able to get the boy out. By the time police arrived, the boy had already been administered CPR and was breathing on his own. Cops gave him oxygen until he was taken to a hospital.
The boy was listed in stable condition Friday morning.
According to police, the boy was at the pool with his mother, four young siblings and the mother's companion. It wasn't clear if all of them were in the pool, but police say the adults were attending to the boy's younger siblings when he started to struggle and ended up going under in the deep end.
The family is from Paterson. None of the members knew how to swim, authorities said.
