An 11-year-old boy was the only one to survive a tragic California boating accident this weekend.
The boy was a cousin to the children who survived a November 2017 mass shooting. The shooter fired at three of Rancho Tehama resident Tiffany Phommathep’s children while she was driving them to school.
The tragedy at sea, which saw five people died and 14 injured and involved this same family, occurred almost exactly seven years to the day after the shooting.
Tiffany’s husband, Johnny Phommathep, along with sons Johnny Jr., 17, and Jake, 14 – both of whom were injured in the shooting seven years ago – set sail on Saturday for an afternoon crabbing trip on Bodega Bay, which is more than 60 miles north of San Francisco.
The boat eventually capsized in the rough waters, sparking a search for survivors. The 11-year-old was the only one who managed to swim back to shore sometime Saturday night using a cooler to stay buoyant, ABC 7 reported.
Tiffany Phommathep is pictured with her husband Johnny Phommathep and their children
Seven years before the boating accident, three of the Phommathep boys and their mother narrowly survived a mass shooting. They are pictured at the hospital after the fact
‘He self-rescued. He was able to make it to shore and stayed the night on the shore. In the morning, he walked up and was found by passersby on Highway 1 and he survived. It’s really miraculous that he made it,’ said Misti Wood, a spokesperson for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Levi Read, Chief Petty Officer with the US Coast Guard, told ABC 7 that the 11-year-old is now in stable condition after being taken to the hospital.
Johnny Jr., who sometimes went by JJ, was found dead on the coast.
For the other four missing boaters, including Johnny Sr. and 14-year-old Jake, it’s not likely that they’ll be found alive, according to the Coast Guard.
‘The survivability at this point is unlikely,’ Read said.
To this point, Johnny Jr.’s body has been the only one recovered by authorities.
This comes after the Coast Guard suspended the search at around 6:30 pm on Sunday.
Rescue crews spent about 57 combined hours and covered more than 2,100 square miles, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Pictured: A Sonoma Sheriff’s vehicle is parked by the Bodega Bay, where Johnny and two of his sons went out on a boat this weekend
Levi Read, Chief Petty Officer with the US Coast Guard, said ‘survivability at this point is unlikely’ for the four missing boaters
A Coast Guard ship searches for the Phommathep family
‘The decision to suspend a search is always difficult to make and never done lightly,’ Chief Warrant Officer Michael L. Zapawa, search and rescue coordinator for the San Francisco sector, said in a news release. ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the missing boaters during this incredibly difficult time.’
Now Tiffany, who has four surviving children, has experienced two horrific tragedies just years apart. What’s even more, she just added another little one to her family: a baby boy that’s about 3 months old.
Sara Lobdell is the school secretary at Rancho Tehama Elementary, the school that was shot at during the mass shooting seven years ago that Tiffany and her children narrowly survived.
Lobdell is a friend of Tiffany’s and organized a GoFundMe page to help her through this most recent tragedy.
A previous GoFundMe established for the Phommathep family after the 2017 shooting said Tiffany’s husband, a military veteran, was the sole provider.
A recent picture of Johnny Phommathep, left, and his family celebrating a birthday
Johnny Phommathep was in the military and the sole provider for his wife Tiffany, who is a stay-at-home mother
Johnny and Tiffany are pictured together in an undated photo
Tiffany is pictured recovering in a hospital bed after the shooting
‘We’re in contact,’ Lobdell said regarding her conversations with Tiffany. ‘She’s trying to hang in there for her other children.’
‘It doesn’t seem real,’ she added.
Lobdell’s GoFundMe has raised more than $16,000 so far, aiming to reach a goal of $100,000.
‘We’re just trying to do something to alleviate what she’s going through… and help financially any way we can,’ Lobdell told DailyMail.com. ‘So I’m really happy about that.’
Almost seven years ago, Tiffany was driving her two sons who had been on the boat, Johnny Jr. and Jake, to Rancho Tehama Elementary on the morning of November 14, 2017. Her then-2-year-old son Niko was also in the car.
Kevin Neal committed a mass shooting in California in November 2017. Among his victims were members of the Phommathep family
Johnny Jr. and Jake were 10 and 7 at the time, and it was a day like any other.
That was until 44-year-old Kevin Neal, who just so happened to be a neighbor of the family, rear-ended Tiffany’s pickup truck and began firing wildly at them, the Redding Record Searchlight reported.
Tiffany acted fast, throwing her body over Johnny Jr. in the passenger seat to shield him from bullets.
‘I just kept on praying that he’d go away because I can’t take another bullet. I knew I wouldn’t make it,’ Tiffany told KCRA days after the shooting.
Tiffany, then 31 years old, was shot four times in the back, left shoulder and once in the hip. One of the bullets became lodged in her intestines.
Johnny Jr. was shot twice in the calf, Jake was shot above his left ankle, and Niko didn’t get hit but did have scratches on his face and neck from glass shards.
Neal died by suicide after police caught up to him.
Johnny Sr., who wasn’t present during the shooting, later praised his namesake son for pulling his two younger brothers into the front of the car to protect them.
‘He was a hero the way he performed,’ he said.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office for an update on the missing boat but didn’t receive a response before publication.
