WAXAHACHIE, Texas (WFAA) – An hour after a 21-year-old man was baptized in a Texas lake, he died while saving a young girl from his church group from drowning, according to police.

Lincer Lopez, 21, visited Lake Waxahachie with a church group from Garland, Texas, on Saturday afternoon. He and several other church members were baptized in the lake during the trip.

An hour later, the group was enjoying the water when a young girl who was with them began to drown. Lincer Lopez immediately rushed to save her.

“He was a hero,” Jacobo Lopez, Lincer Lopez’s uncle, said in Spanish. “He didn’t think twice about saving someone else. He didn’t think about the risk that he could die, and he risked his life to save someone else’s.”

The teenager survived. She was pulled from the water by boater Jacob Bell, who performed CPR and successfully revived her. Bell then helped recover Lincer Lopez’s body.

“I haven’t really started it yet – I don’t understand it yet,” he said. “It’s hard.”

Bell’s brother drowned when he was only three years old, and his sympathy for Lincer Lopez’s family pains him in many ways.

“He was a hero. He had just been baptized and had dedicated his life to the Lord. We pray for his family and the little girl’s family. He was a strong boy and they should be very proud of him,” Bell said.

Jacobo Lopez says his nephew was so excited about his upcoming baptism that he couldn’t sleep the night before. He adds that the 21-year-old worked hard in construction so he could send money to his siblings in Mexico.

Although Lincer Lopez was young when he died, his uncle is confident that his legacy will live on and that his story will inspire others to serve God and help people.

“If they can help like my nephew did,” Jacobo Lopez said in Spanish.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help Lincer Lopez’s family raise money to send his body to his parents in Mexico.

Copyright 2024 WFAA via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.