A New York man has been charged with intentionally trying to drown his two children Saturday morning on a Connecticut beach.

West Haven Police said that an officer on patrol at about 2:30 a.m. spotted an SUV parked on the beach and “heard significant screaming” from the water as he approached the vehicle. He saw an man and two children in the water, and began moving toward them.

As the officer entered the water, the man drifted further away with the children and shouted to the officer to “stay back.”

The officer determined that the man, later identified as Romney Desronvil of Queens, “was deliberately drowning his children” and was about 100 yards from the shore.

More officers arrived, along with West Shore firefighters and their fire boat. The initial officer got possession of the two children, and backup officers helped him bring them to shore. They performed CPR on the children, and emergency medical personnel took them to a hospital by ambulance. The children remained at the ICU in the hospital later in the day.

Police did not provide the children’s ages.

Desronvil, 41, was taken into custody. Charges are pending, the department said.

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[Featured image: West Haven beach near where the incident took place/Google Maps]