NEAR KEY WEST, Fla. (WSVN) — Body camera footage has been released showing first responders rushing to help a man after he was attacked by a shark off the Florida Keys.
Jose Abreu was spearfishing with friends and his children off the coast of Key West on Monday when a bull shark swam up to him and left him bloody.
Video shows paramedics with Monroe County Fire Rescue lifting Abreu into their patrol boat to get him to safety.
A man on the boat with Abreu explained to officials what had happened.
“The shark got him right here, right here, and got him right here,” said the man as he signaled to officers where Abreu was bitten. “The shark is big, maybe eight feet, six feet.”
“Did you see what kind or anything?” said the officer.
“A bull shark,” said the man.
7News spoke to Abreu on Tuesday, where he reflected on the moment of the attack.
“He’s too fast, he’s too fast, I only say that this is the end for me,” said Abreu.
He said that being afraid didn’t do him any good.
“You don’t have time, you don’t have time to do nothing,” he said.
Abreu’s children watched their father get attacked by the shark from the boat and were worried for him.
Bodycam footage shows the officers speaking to the children.
Abreu said he calmed their nerves.
“My kids said, ‘Hey, Daddy, no die, no die,’” said Abreu. “I said, ‘Hey don’t worry, this is small, this is nothing, this is small.”
Video shows officers comforting the kids and the family as they loaded Abreu into an ambulance.
“He’s going to be OK, going to be OK,” said one paramedic.
“I’m going to take good care of him, OK?” another paramedic told the children.
“They are going to take care of him, OK?” a woman who was holding the children told them.
Abreu said he is alive today due to the quick response from his friend and first responders.
He said his friend protected him by jumping into the water and stabbing the shark with his speargun and then rushing Abreu to shore after the attack.
“I am here for my friend,” said Abreu. “He saved my life. When you’re fishing alone, you don’t have a chance, you don’t have an opportunity for nothing.”
Officials said the odds of being bitten by a shark is one in 11.5 million.
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