At 2:25, Sunday afternoon, officers were summoned to the Harpeth River’s Lewisburg Pike canoe launch after citizens reported hearing someone yelling for help. Arriving officers found citizens performing CPR on a man on the bank, on the other side of the river.

Thomas Hacker, 60, of Franklin, was initially observed hanging upside-down from a homemade zipline over the water. Citizens who heard Hacker’s cry for help swam to his aide, finding him partially submerged. After freeing Hacker, they pulled him to the bank and initiated CPR. Franklin Police Officers and Firefighters used a rescue boat to get Mr. Hacker to the other side of the river where a waiting ambulance rushed him to the Williamson Medical Center. Mr. Hacker did not survive.

Police are investigating the tragic death, though foul play is not suspected.   

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