911 Call During Drowning of Obama Chef Released
A 911 call made on the night chef Tafari Campbell disappeared while paddleboarding near Barack and Michelle Obama’s Massachusetts estate was made public Tuesday.
Campbell’s body was found July 24 in shallow water in Edgartown Great Pond, very close to the former president’s property on Martha’s Vineyard. He had been the Obamas’ personal chef.
The Dukes County Sheriff’s Office released clips of two calls that were heavily redacted, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
It said the first call came in at 7:46 p.m. on July 23.
“We have a male drowning in the back of the property right now. We have our rescue swimmers. They’re attempting to go out there right now,” the Secret Service agent making the call said in an audio clip shared by the Daily Mail.
“A rescue swimmer and an agent driving down there right now to get on the boat,” the agent said, after supplying contact and access information.
“Someone came running up to our back post, saying that a gentleman, it’s just a guest of the house, is out there drowning, so right now our rescue swimmer is going out there,” he said.
“Do you need an ambulance or do you need water rescue as well?” the dispatcher said.
“They didn’t advise right now. I would say at least an ambulance and — I don’t know what they’re doing in the back of the property right now. … We have our rescue swimmer who’s getting the boat right now. So I would say at least an ambulance,” the agent said.
The agent later said the Obama compound was not using radios for communication about the incident.
In a follow-up call minutes later, he told the dispatcher, “So our rescue swimmers aren’t able to locate the gentleman that, that was reported drowning. So they — they’re out in the water right now, but as of now they don’t know where he is.”
The agent then gave Campbell’s description: “He’s wearing all black, he’s on a paddle board, he’s a 40ish-year-old black gentleman, regular build. And we have our rescue swimmers on a boat in the area now.”
The agent told the dispatcher the paddleboard had been found and Campbell was not wearing a life vest.
It was not revealed at the time, but Campbell, 45, was paddleboarding with a 26-year-old woman who was a staff member at the estate.
He was declared dead due to an accidental drowning. No explanation was given for how Campbell, who was considered a capable swimmer, drowned in comparatively shallow water.
Heavily redacted records from the Massachusetts State Police indicate the presence of Barack Obama during a witness interview related to Campebell’s death, according to a report published by Judicial Watch on Friday.
According to the records, Obama arrived at the scene via motorcade and a witness interview took place at the Obama residence.
Soon after that, “a cold, wet woman,” characterized as a “witness,” arrived.
The following morning, this “eyewitness” was interviewed again — at the Obama residence with Obama present.
According to the records, the female eyewitness told police she saw Campbell “fall off his paddleboard, began splashing and became extremely panicked, yelling for help and subsequently went underwater very quickly.”
She said she was unable to reach him before he “disappeared into the extremely murky” water.
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