12-year-old Georgia boy dies after being caught in rip tide off Florida Panhandle

ATLANTA - Family friends say a 12-year-old boy from Georgia died Thursday after getting caught in a rip current in Pensacola last week. That same rip current took two other people's lives. 

For 14-year-old Braylon Jones and 12-year-old Rashad Williams their first trip to Johnson Beach in Pensacola was meant to be a fun spring break getaway. But on April 6, things went horribly wrong. Braylon's mom Addie Jones was there.

"My son said the way it came, it was like a wave, it was something like water, just came pouring like a wave. Stood up, and came down on them, and it kind of like flushed them down in the water," Jones said. 

"I'm just speechless. I just couldn't believe all of that was unfolding right before me like that," she added.

Both Braylon and Rashad were taken to the hospital. Braylon survived. Rashad was on a ventilator for days, but Jones said he passed away Thursday night. 

Rashad Williams  (Supplied)

"You know, I feel so bad, because I took him with me, you know, and he didn't come back to his mom, like he left," Jones said.

Two others from Atlanta, 16-year-old Bryce Brooks and Charles Johnson, jumped in to help, and got caught in the rip current too. Neither survived.

"He (Jones' son) said one minute he seen everybody trying to fight the water the current to stay on top he said next thing you know he didn't see nobody," Jones explained. 

Jones has started a GoFundMe and is now working to raise money to help Rashad's mom with expenses. 

"I want that money to go to him and like to just make everything easy for her," Jones said.