‘He was screaming for help’: Bystanders rescue swimmer attacked by shark

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. (KSBW) – A man was significantly injured following a shark attack off the coast of California.

He is now recovering thanks to the help of a couple out paddle-boarding nearby.

Paul Bandy and Aimee Johns were in the water just past Lovers’ Point in Pacific Grove, California, when they came across the swimmer who had just been attacked by a shark.

“He was screaming for help, you can tell by the sound and the emotion in his voice that there was something definitely wrong,” Bandy said. “And he was slapping the water. I wasn’t sure if there was some sort of thing that he was trying to get away from him or just trying to draw attention to himself.”

Bandy is a Sacramento Police Officer, and Johns is a nurse.

“As a police officer I respond to emergencies all the time so I don’t think there was ever a question of whether or not we were gonna go, it was just how fast we were going to be able to get there,” Bandy said.

The swimmer was bitten on his torso. Severely injured, the couple had to act quickly.

“We had to quickly cut his wetsuit off of him and open it all up and then try to apply the tourniquets to each limb and also to his abdomen, put the pressure there because he was bleeding severely,” Johns said.

The rescue was caught on surveillance video from a nearby restaurant.

The couple was in town celebrating their wedding anniversary.

“Not really the one in a million opportunity we were looking for,” Bandy said.

Johns said she was just glad they were there to help.

An aerial search of the water showed no sightings of the shark.

Meanwhile, Lover’s Point and nearby beaches were closed until Saturday as a precaution.

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