When Corion Evans saw the car slide beneath the surface of the Pascagoula River, he didn’t wait for instructions, backup, or a plan. He stripped off his shoes, his phone, his fear, and hurled himself into the darkness. Waves slammed his chest as he fought the current, reaching the first girl gasping for air. Then another. Then another. Each time, he turned back toward shore, lungs burning, muscles failing, refusing to let go.

Exhausted, barely able to stand, he heard new cries: the officer who’d waded in to help was now being dragged under. Corion went back. No cameras, no guarantees, just instinct and a choice. He pulled the officer to safety the same way he had the girls—one desperate stroke at a time. Four people went home that night because one teenager decided that someone else’s life mattered more than his own.