PALM BEACH
Dade Samaritan jumps in, saves life, drowns
Riptides claimed the life of a Miami-Dade man who tried to
rescue two girls in the ocean off Palm Beach on Sunday.
BY ROCHELLE E.B. GILKEN
The Palm Beach Post
PALM BEACH --
A stranger yelled for someone to help her drowning
daughters, and Michael Sagaro bolted from his beach chair to
the ocean.
His best friend, Giankarlo Squicimari, stopped building a
sand castle with Sagaro's 3-year-old and followed him.
Maybe 50 yards out, a desperate 12-year-old held out her
hand and Sagaro grabbed it. Exhausted, he saw Squicimari a few
yards away with the girl's sister.
And then, Sagaro, of Fort Lauderdale, felt death coming. He
couldn't get back.
''I'm kicking my feet, kicking my feet, kicking my feet,''
Sagaro said. ``I'm trying to hold us together. The waves pull
you and pull you. These riptides grab you and grab you.''
Sagaro didn't know it then, but his stronger best friend
was enduring the same struggle.
''You're viewing death as it comes. Your body is saying
there's nothing else to do. My legs couldn't hold anymore, the
waves are flipping me under,'' said Sagaro.
Except he was saved.
Squicimari, 31, drowned. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon,
behind the Four Seasons in Palm Beach, five people would walk
his body out of the water.
Best friends. One lived. One died. They told Sagaro in the
hospital after doctors got enough air in his lungs. And it
took his breath away.
Sagaro grew up with Squicimari in Miami-Dade. Squicimari
was planning to move from Southwest Miami-Dade to a town house
in Fort Lauderdale.
''If there's one thing about him, he would've wanted to die
this way,'' said Sagaro, 32.
Squicimari held the girl out of the water long enough for
another rescuer to get her.
``He's a hero. He's one of those kids that would do it over
and over again.''
It was a Memorial Day weekend outing that brought strangers
together for four rescues.
Squicimari gave his life to save a little girl. Sagaro
almost died holding another girl long enough for Lee Cooper to
save them both.
Others, unnamed, helped out. Another unnamed swimmer was
saved.
The water was rough for the lifelong friends.
But they were South Florida guys, they weren't scared, just
enjoying a family weekend at the Four Seasons. Sagaro with his
wife and two sons, 3 and 5. Squicimari with the woman he was
engaged to marry in December, Sasha Herrera.
On Sunday afternoon, they were on the shore when they saw
Tania Hernandez frantically pointing to the water.
''When I look out, all I see is the little girl's hands
waving,'' Sagaro said.
He couldn't tell how far she was. Or how deep.
But he kept going until he caught her. And he struggled.
Sagaro, all of 5-foot-3, was holding a 4-foot-6, 85-pound
weight.
He was desperate when Lee Cooper put down his Newsweek and
ran out in response to the screams. Cooper is a 44-year-old
executive at General Electric corporate finance in Westport,
Conn. He was a swimmer in high school.
He didn't see anyone, but started swimming until he found
the man and girl.
SCREAMS WERE HEARD
The girl said, ``I'm gonna die. I'm gonna drown.''
Sagaro said, ``Don't leave me. I need help. I can't make
it.''
Cooper tried, but couldn't pull them both.
'I had to break him off. I said, `I'm coming back, I'm
coming back,' '' Cooper said.
Cooper swam off with the girl.
''Right there is when I thought I was gonna die,'' Sagaro
said. ``You're kicking for so long. You can't use your legs. I
was just dying.''
By the time Erika was safe on shore, Cooper was exhausted.
''My husband was bent over, he couldn't breathe,'' Kim
Cooper said. He told her he had to go back.
Sagaro, back at home in Fort Lauderdale with his wife, now
counts the time he had left: Five, four, three,
two . . .
''On my last breath, I started dropping underwater and some
guy grabbed my right arm and pulled me to the shoreline. I
don't remember everything. But I was lying there on the shore,
and my little son was asking if I was dead. That stuck in my
head,'' he said.
Cooper went in a third time, but other people already
helped yet another potential rescuer who had almost drowned.
An anonymous rescue. That person's name is not on the police
report, but several witnesses saw it.
The girls who were rescued are back at home, safe in Miami.
Their mother said she is grateful but trying not to think
about it.
`I'M PRAYING'
''I'm praying for his soul. He was a person just trying to
help someone else. . . . I'm terribly sorry. My heart is
broken,'' said Hernandez. ``It's terrible how in a minute
everybody was drowning at the same time.''
The water was rough, and there were no lifeguards on the
beach. Several lifeguards came running down from nearby
beaches. But they couldn't do it alone.
Squicimari was an only child. He was born in Puerto Rico
and grew up with Sagaro in Miami, where they went to school
together. They played ball with future New York Yankee Alex
Rodriguez. People called Squicimari ''JC'' because people
assumed his name was Juan Carlos.
A viewing will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bernardo
Garcia Funeral Home on Bird Road in Miami-Dade. The funeral
will be at noon Friday at Church of the Little Flower in Coral
Gables.
R.I.P.
