A 14-year-old boy died Tuesday after emergency workers pulled him from the water near the Queens shore, officials said, according to the New York Daily News.
The teen was with a friend, also 14, when he began struggling in the ocean near Seagirt Blvd. and Beach 19th St. in Far Rockaway about 12:40 p.m., sources said.
DANGER Do Not Enter The Water Unless There is A Lifegaurd On Duty.
“There were two boys. They were screaming,” said one witness, who declined to give her name.
She said several bystanders were about to jump in the water to help before teams of firefighters and cops quickly arrived.
She said the beach was crowded. Witnesses and sources said the boys were swimming in an area without lifeguards.
“I warned them not to go where the lifeguard wasn’t at,” said Reginald Whitley, who was fishing nearby. “They went into the water with the red flag.”
One teen managed to swim to shore. Rescue teams jumped in the water to rescue the other boy, sources and the witness said.
“One was screaming and the other started gasping for air,” the first witness said, adding that the second youth soon disappeared from view.
Divers jumped in the water, but could not locate the boy until almost 40 minutes later, sources said.
“It was a large area we had to cover,” a source said.
Firefighters pulled the unconscious boy out of the water about 1:15 p.m., officials said.
He was rushed to nearby St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, he died about an hour later.
“That water is a bad situation if you don’t know anything about it,” Whitley said. “It’s a tragedy.”
With Daniel McCarthy
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This is a perfect example of why we need more Pep Officers, It would not have happened if there were more officers, they are too thin to cover the Beach properly.
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