Baby, Mother Saved After Car Goes Into Lake

Father killed after car goes into Pembroke Park lake with family of three inside

A man was killed and his wife and daughter hospitalized after their car went into a lake in Pembroke Park lake early Tuesday.

Deputies say witnesses saw Catherine Copeland in the driver's seat, and her husband Sandro Michel tried to take control of the wheel and step on the gas -- all with their 3-year-old daughter Sariyah in the back seat.

"There was a deputy behind him," said Fredicka Taylor, Copeland's cousin. "He was telling her that he didn't wanna go to jail, I guess he tried to run."

Michel, 27, has a record of domestic abuse.

Deputies were called to a gas station near the lake in the 4000 block of Southwest 20th Avenue at 12:30 following reports of a man and woman arguing, Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said.

When deputies arrived, they heard Copeland screaming, and when they moved their flashlights over the lake they saw her floating in the water, Concepcion said.

Deputy Cazi Navarro, who was one of the first responders to the scene, said Copeland was struggling.

"She said, 'I don't know how to swim, I'm going down,'" Navarro said.

After Copeland went below the surface, Navarro was able to pull her out, but soon realized there were more people who needed to be saved.

"The entire time she kept screaming, 'My baby! My baby! My baby!'" Navarro said. "You couldn't see anything because it was so dark...somebody spotted something in the water. So now as I'm getting to this thing that I found floating in the water, I saw it was a pamper, and attached to the pamper was this little girl."

Police rushed the unconscious 3-year-old, identified as Sariyah Michel, to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital where she was in critical but stable condition, Concepcion said.

Copeland, 33, was taken to Hollywood memorial Hospital and treated and released.

Michel was found inside the car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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