Man who police say died saving child at Percy Priest Lake described as ‘wonderful person’
By Michael Warrick
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — Dangerous water conditions at Percy Priest Lake contributed to a 34-year-old man’s death over the weekend, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA).
Harold Layne Tomlinson, who went by Layne, drowned Saturday night after jumping into the water to help a friend’s child, according to police. Tomlinson and friends had been out on a pontoon boat when the incident occurred.
The wind had caused the water to become rough, and the boat drifted away from Tomlinson, who was not wearing a life jacket, the TWRA said.
When reached by phone, a best friend of Tomlinson told WSMV4 that Tomlinson was simply, “a wonderful person.”
“That’s sad, he had done the right thing, but you just don’t ever know,” Byron Fuqua, who is a longtime boater and fisher at Percy Priest, said. “It’s very, very sad that it happened but whose to say, I would’ve went in [too].”
Search crews searched several hours Saturday night for Tomlinson, whose body was found by bystanders on the shoreline Sunday morning.
The areas closer to the Percy Priest Dam can experience stronger currents if the generators are running or the gates are open, but that didn’t appear to be the case Saturday night, according to TWRA.
Tomlinson’s death marks the first boating fatality on Percy Priest Lake this year.
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