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Noel Avila, Pedi Officer, Coast Guard
"I did my own risk assessment and I went down the canal, came back up and my parent instincts kicked in because I am a father and I told the chief I am going in the water so I change my clothes knowing that debris would be in the water I went in with a tennis and I just grid off each section and I started to bob and use my feet as prongs to feel and the first area I thought the child would have went it wasn't because under the bridge was like 4ft of silt and 2 ft of water so I knew the child didn't go in that area so I went and started the next section and when I started that section. 3 to four brave civilians jumped in with me and I think the furthest to my right he jumped in and I think he landed on the child and brought up the child and I did all my best to hide the child from the media and from people taking pictures I tried my best and I handed him over to the medic and same thing my parent instincts kicked in and I tired not to make the media see the child and everyone that was videoing I tried my best to not let them image because no parent would have wanted that to happen."

"When we arrived we were informed that the child was in there from 3:00 and we got the information nearly 5:40 we received the call and I was in the area so I responded first. There is a big time gap as to how we just got the call it's not like it happened and we took long we just got the call."

"3 hours in the water is a long time I don't want to say I didn't think but we still have to try, our job is to still try so I handed it over to the medic and he did it he tried but it's not my call to but he did his best and we all did our best."

But those same civilians who jumped into the water and eventually found Wade's body complained that the Coast Guard and the cops were mostly standing around while they were doing most of the diving. Here's how the officers responded:

Lt Ruperto Pinelo, Navy Nurse, Coast Guard
"It was very difficult for him to live because his body was already was stiff he already had rigor Mortis so it was quite challenging for me but the parents were there and they were hoping to get that light that the child would love but unfortunately he was more than three hours under water so it was kind of difficult for me to proceed with the CPR."

"It's no lack thereof we do have personnel that are experts for example the medic department. We have divers, we have experts, the coast guard is never alone so in any emergency that gets called we are right upon the scene so like yesterday they called up 1800 in less than 10-20 mins we were there so it's a lot. Those negative comments, well, they don't know the situation we were in when called upon at 18:00 hours so it's kind of difficult for people to understand how we work."