Sheriff's Office Boat Sinks Near Bay Point

No deputies were injured when a sheriff’s office patrol boat began taking on water and sank near Bay Point on Wednesday morning, a sheriff’s spokesman said today.

Deputies were traveling in the boat at about 9:20 a.m. along the shoreline near Bay Point when the vessel began taking on water “at an uncontrollable rate,” spokesman Jimmy Lee said in a statement.

Lee said one of the deputies on board tried to navigate the ship to shore, but the engines failed and the boat began to sink. The deputies were roughly 100 yards from the nearest shoreline, so they abandoned the sinking ship and swam to shore, Lee said.

As a precaution, Lee said the location of the sunken vessel was boomed off and marine divers salvaged the ship’s remains Wednesday night. Lee said the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

--Bay City News