Father Angry Over Son's Drowning

By DANIELLE JOHNSON

Updated 10:50 AM EDT, Mon, Oct 5, 2009

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NBCPhiladelphia.com

William Brooks said he’s angry that rescue workers did not move fast enough to find his son after he fell into a fast moving-creek in Delaware County Saturday night.

Investigators said Nick Brooks, 26, was drinking with relatives and a friend when he apparently slipped and fell into Darby Creek in Montgomery Park around 10 p.m.

William Brooks said he raced to the creek with a friend but found no rescue workers in the water looking for his son.

“Nobody was doing anything, nobody was in the water. So I took it upon myself. I saw which way the current was going and I went down like 100 yards and went it,” said Brooks.

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When he got out of the water police arrested and charged Brooks and his friend, James Deveney, with obstructing a search.

Nick Brooks’ body was recovered in Darby Creek Sunday afternoon nearly 14 hours after he fell in, according to police.

But it is where his son’s body was recovered that William Brooks said will haunt him for the rest of his life.

“He was found in the spot where I was searching and they stopped me," said Brooks.

Police said rescue boats from four fire departments and the Chester police department's dive team searched until 4 a.m. without success. The search resumed at 6 a.m., and authorities said a rescue boat found Brooks’ body at 12:20 p.m. about 100 yards downstream from where he fell in.

The Delaware County medical examiner has not confirmed the cause of death.