Two men cooling off in river drown after struggling to escape, Arizona cops say
Two men drowned in a river after going into the water to cool off, Arizona deputies said.
Anoop Gankidi, 32, from Tempe, Arizona, and Venkata Mukkaala, 32, from Milpitas, California, began to struggle after venturing into the Colorado River near Topock Gorge the afternoon of Aug. 3, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said in an Aug. 4 Facebook post.
They were part of a group of five that had parked a rented pontoon boat on a beach on the river, deputies said. All five got in the water as a break from the heat, and then “three of them slipped underwater and began to struggle,” according to deputies.
One of them “was able to get back to the shallow area, however Gankidi and Mukkaala did not resurface,” deputies said.
Someone on another boat called for help after being flagged down, according to deputies, who said the two men were found by divers in about 12 feet of water. They were taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, deputies said.
Impairment wasn’t a factor, according to deputies.
Mohave County is in northwestern Arizona and includes Lake Havasu City.
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