The Marine Corps has identified Master Sgt. Jeff Briar as the Marine who drowned the evening of Sept. 22, off the San Diego coast.
Briar was a member of Headquarters Battalion, Tactical Training Exercise Control Group, in Twentynine Palms, California, the Marine Corps confirmed.
Because of an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Corps was unable to release any details on the drowning.
A military safety brief only said Briar died while saving two children.
According to a GoFundMe page, Briar died on his wedding day, trying to save two children swept away by the tide.
“He was swimming with his children and the tide became to much for them in efforts to save his children he was not able to overcome the strength of the ocean,” the page says. “Fellow marines brought his children in while another group of marines brought him to shore."
But Briar’s mother, Debbie Robinson, insisted that her son did not get married the day he died, but was instead having a “promise ceremony” with his girlfriend of two years, and that the children he saved were not his.
“He is not married ... there is no marriage license,” Robinson said. "He did not save his girlfriend’s children he saved two children.”
Robinson added that the GoFundMe page was “false and fraudulent, and it’s being investigated.”
From both accounts, the children were safely brought ashore, but by the time Briar was on the beach he required the immediate administration of CPR.
The page says that the hospital Briar was taken to attempted to revive the Marine for over an hour before declaring him dead.
Marine Corps Times has reached out to the creators of the GoFundMe page but have not heard back yet.
