Overview

• Anderson “Chase” Childers, a former Cobb County police officer and minor-league Baltimore Orioles player, drowned on July 13 after saving multiple swimmers from a rip current off Pawleys Island.
• Pawleys Island officials are distributing educational materials, adding warning signage and increasing life rings at beach access points to address recurring rip current hazards.
• Childers’s death is the fifth rip current–related drowning since June 2023 and the second in the past month on the lifeguard-free island.
• A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $126,000 and community events are underway to support Childers’s wife and three children.
• Family and former colleagues remember Childers for his selflessness and past life-saving honors, underscoring the island’s push to improve swimmer safety.