It is enraging. When you arrest someone and handcuff them you are entirely responsible for them. It sounds like this cop didn’t know what he was doing, and didn’t care that he didn’t know. Sure, he feels bad now, but even with help from the other man he wasn’t able to get this guy out of the water. And what, there was no other help that could be summoned, instead they let his body lie in the water overnight? It is clear from the article that the government’s main concern is in withholding information.
I don’t even know that I think it’s a great idea to handcuff someone in a boat, esp. an open boat like that one, life jacket or no. Maybe if they want to go around taking people into to custody they need to have 2 officers on board.