Socorro Man, 25, Dies In City Pool

By John Larson

SOCORRO – A reckless stunt gone wrong at the city pool has cost the life of a young Socorro man.
Floyd Savedra Jr., 25, drowned Monday while trying to hold his breath under water. Socorro police Sgt. Richard Lopez said the accident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. Memorial Day.
“It was closing time and the lifeguards were trying to get everybody out of the water. The day was over,” Lopez said. “Throughout the afternoon [Savedra] had been holding his breath under water, and the lifeguards had been telling him to ‘cut it out.’
“At one point he got into a verbal altercation with one of the lifeguards about it, and he continued to do it.”
He said, based on the investigation, Savedra was apparently wanting to impress his friends, showing how long he could hold his breath.
“At closing time he was in the shallow end of the pool, but swam over to the deep end and sat on the bottom,” Lopez said.
One of the lifeguards told one of Savedra’s friends to “swim down there and get him out.”
“The friend went down there and said Savedra gave him a thumbs up signal, and the friend went back up,” he said. “The lifeguard then went down to check for himself and found Savedra wasn’t moving.”
Savedra was pulled out of the water, and lifeguards immediately began performing CPR until EMTs arrived, but could not revive him.
“They got him to the hospital as fast as they could,” Lopez said.
The municipal pool is currently closed, and city officials are discussing how to prevent another accident from happening.
“One possibility is to have a police officer there for four hours each day,” Lopez said.
Funeral services will be held at San Miguel Catholic Church Saturday, June 5.

Socorro Man, 25, Dies In City Pool