TikToker Natalee King was enjoying the day out paddleboarding on the river with her husband and two sons when the four of them overheard a disturbing conversation coming from a nearby bank of trees.
As they approached, they could hear a group of teenage boys bantering with another teenage boy. The last made it clear that he could not swim, and the others threatened him, claiming that they would leave without him if he didn't swim back.
The family rounded the trees into a clear area where the teenager was standing alone with a life preserver meant for a young child strapped tightly around his neck. While he had managed to swim from a small bank to the other, he had no way to safely continue in the direction that his "friends" had gone, and the current had grown stronger, so he had no way to swim back.
He saw the family looking at him, and he said:
"Hi...They want me to go over there."
"I'm gonna...I think I'm gonna die."
The mother initially told her husband to help before pivoting her own paddleboard herself toward the teenager, reassuring him that he wasn't going to die. He swam the few feet between where he was standing and her paddleboard, grabbing onto the back of hers and the back of the board her sons were sharing.
The family found out that his name is Marquis, with the nickname Lamar, it was his first time to the area, and he'd been brought there by his "friends."
Knowing that he might fall if he climbed on the board, they slowly pulled him behind them until they safely reached the shore he needed to go to.
As he walked away, King's husband laughed as Marquis called his friends out and they continued to banter with him, before whispering that Marquis's friends were "a**holes."
But what should have simply been a kind gesture to a person in need quickly turned into a political debate.
Allegedly, King follows several conservative politicians on TikTok, so some assumed that she and her family must be MAGA supporters, and that saving Marquis was a "token" that they could use for views and performative kindness.
People started to scrutinize the video, saying that saving Marquis was the "bare minimum" they could do and not something they should be thanked for. Some also said that the family seemed awkward and cold while pulling Marquis to the shore, and some also took serious issue with King's husband laughing at the banter rather than disciplining the teenagers into treating Marquis better.
King's video was swiftly taken down after being accused of including hate speech.
Fellow TikToker @mznewyorkone, however, saw the video and posted it on her platform, which you can watch here:
Though the video was not removed from her platform, the debate around the King's actions continued.
Some were grateful that King stepped in and helped Marquis. No matter their reasons for doing so, Marquis did not become another young Black man to mourn on the news.
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
But others remained critical, calling the King's actions the bare minimum and questionable at best.
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
@mznewyorkone/TikTok
TikToker Natalee King later posted a storytime video after reviewing all of the criticism.
The family was quiet throughout the situation, because they weren't entirely sure what was going on. They were also worried about Marquis falling into the water, so they pulled him rather than trying to have him climb on one of the boards.
You can watch the video here:
The most important thing to note out of all of this was that Marquis was safely pulled from the river, and he also made it home alive.
On the video that was taken down by the platform, he commented, stating that he had arrived home safely and would try to think more critically about who his friends are and how he should be treated.
@tgjn988/TikTok
@AutumnTweets / X
@AutumnTweets/X