Kevin M. Barrett

Kevin M. Barrett helped rescue Caleb Adams from a shark attack, Del Mar, California, June 2, 2024. Adams, 46, was finishing an open-water swim with a group in the Pacific Ocean at a point about 450 feet from shore when a juvenile great white shark, later determined to be approximately 9 feet long and about 550 pounds, attacked him. During the attack, Adams sustained severe lacerations to his chest and torso, lacerations and puncture wounds on his right thigh, as well as lacerations on his left hand from attempting to fend off the shark. Adams and a nearby witness screamed out for help. Barrett, 51, financial advisor, had also just completed an open-water swim and was bodysurfing about halfway between Adams and the shore. Near him was another member of their swim group, a 31-year-old real estate company vice president. Barrett and the real estate executive both heard the screams of “Shark!” and “Help!” They looked at each other, and Barrett immediately swam swiftly toward Adams. The real estate executive turned to shore to ensure that someone there was calling for backup before shortly following Barrett. As Barrett approached, Adams was attempting to swim towards him and stated that he had just been bit by a shark. Barrett reached for Adams, turned him on his back, and put his right arm under Adams’s right armpit and across his chest to the left side of his neck, pulling Adams on top of his own chest. With Adams in his right arm, Barrett swam in a backstroke style toward shore using his left arm and both legs. The real estate executive arrived seconds later, when a male surfer also approached and offered his surfboard for them to use. Barrett and the real estate executive together moved Adams atop the board in a prone position. The real estate executive then lay atop Adams’s lower body and kicked his legs in the water to propel the board toward shore as Barrett swam next to them with a hand on the board to steady it. Once in waist-deep water, Barrett grabbed one of Adams’s arms and wrapped it around his neck while the real estate executive grabbed the other arm and wrapped it around his neck. Barrett and the real estate executive helped Adams to shore and up the beach, where they then laid him in the back of a lifeguard truck that had just arrived shortly before paramedics. Adams, who suffered significant blood loss, underwent emergency surgery to repair his wounds and was hospitalized three days. He has now physically recovered. Barrett was not injured.