‘He’s not breathing’: 911 calls capture residents’ attempts to save drowning boy

Several 911 calls released Thursday captured the frantic efforts made by residents to save a 13-year-old boy who drowned in floodwaters over the weekend.

On Saturday around 3:15 p.m., Ryan Taylor was found on the 5600 block of Boulder Highway, near Tropicana Avenue. He was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center where he died the next morning, according to the coroner.

Several people called 911 reporting that a boy who was on a flotation device got stuck under a van and had not emerged from under the water. Officials later described Taylor as riding an inner tube. Callers described the van as being in the parking lot of the Sporstman’s Royal Manor apartment complex.

“I need an ambulance, police. I need somebody! There’s a kid under a van,” one woman told a dispatcher.

Screams could be heard in the background of her call, and she described residents pushing over the van and pulling the boy out of the water.

“Oh my god, he’s not breathing,” she said.

In one call, a man used multiple expletives to voice his frustration to a dispatcher that no medical personnel had arrived after 15 minutes had passed and then hung up.

A homeless man, who has yet to be identified by the coroner, was found dead Saturday morning in the west valley and was believed to have died from drowning.

Contact David Wilson at dwilson@reviewjournal.com.