NEW ORLEANS — WGNO has learned the identity of the Good Samaritan who went after two men in a car that drove into Lake Pontchartrain Tuesday night.
Family and friends say it was Frank Williams of the Ninth Ward. They say he was a cook at the Blue Crab Restaurant & Oyster Bar off Lakeshore Drive. They waited out in the cold or inside the restaurant for hours Tuesday morning. They told WGNO they just want closure.
A Coast Guard boat has been scanning the waters. Family was waiting for the NOPD’s dive teams to enter the water, but inclement weather was making the search difficult. Investigators say around 7 PM Tuesday, two men were in a white car in the restaurant’s parking lot, and one of them drove it right into the lake. A broken bench could be seen on the dock.
Witnesses and restaurant workers sprang into action, jumping into the lake, trying to rescue the two men inside the car. They managed to get the victims out. Police say one of them died at the hospital. The other man is in stable condition.
Williams has been missing since that time. His family says he had a good heart and would have done what he did for anyone. His coworkers told us he would give you the shirt off his back, and he was like a dad to them.
Williams is in his 50s. He had a wife, a son and three grandkids.
The NOPD’s Traffic Fatality Divison is investigating. They did not have any press conferences planned for Tuesday.
A GoFundMe account has been started for Frank’s family, please click here to donate:
https://www.gofundme.com/q6sha-the-good-samaritan