Brayan Torres’ mother is remembering the 20-year-old’s last heroic actions of saving a young woman’s life before the Pima County Sheriff’s detention officer drowned late last month.
The Nogales, Arizona resident had just celebrated his first anniversary with the sheriff’s office four days before his death on the evening of July 24. After jumping into Patagonia Lake to rescue his older sister’s 23-year-old friend from drowning, Torres was lost to the waters of the southern Arizona state park reservoir. His body was recovered the following morning.
“He was very young with many dreams he did not accomplish,” said his mother, Angelica Rodriguez, 44, in a Thursday evening interview with The Arizona Republic. She added that he was a “hero.”
Torres had shared with his mom his plans to apply in December to be a Pima County Sheriff’s deputy with the eventual goal of becoming a detective at the agency.
“Very respectful, loving,” Rodriguez said about her son, mentioning he had friends of all ages. “Very good worker.”
The middle child of Rodriguez’s five children, Torres would make an hour-long drive to work the night shift at the Pima County Jail in Tucson. Rodriguez would wait up every morning for him to walk through the door with his regular McDonald’s meal: the McGriddles sandwich and a Coca-Cola.
Rodriguez last saw her son as he got dressed to head to the lake on the day he drowned.
“I’ll be back in a while, Ma,” Torres told her.
Rodriguez’s 23-year-old daughter who was with Torres could not call for help from the lake due to bad cell phone reception, the mom said. The daughter came home and told Rodriguez that Torres had saved her friend before yelling he could no longer swim. Torres then sank below the water’s surface and disappeared, Rodriguez’s daughter told her.
“I did not accept his death on Wednesday (July 24) because I said, ‘There is a hope, maybe,'” Rodriguez said.
The family waited hours for the rescue divers to arrive, according to the bereaved mother.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Gerardo Castillo told The Republic on Friday that when deputies arrived at the scene, they realized it was a recovery operation rather than a rescue mission. He explained that they had to wait for other agencies equipped with divers.
Pima County Sheriff’s deputies, who Torres had aspired to join the ranks of, were the team that recovered his remains.
Rodriguez was expecting to receive her son’s ashes late Thursday after his funeral on Wednesday. The family was holding a novenario, or devotional prayer within nine days of his passing. Rodriguez said a Mass would be held a month after his untimely demise. In a year, she will likely hold a memorial honoring his heroism, she added.
“I miss everything about him,” she said.