Parents of a teenage boy feared their son may have been swept away by a strong current while at the beach with friends.
17-year-old Lamine Sarr and his two friends went to Rockaway Beach on Saturday evening and the teen never returned from the water. Unfortunately, the father of the boy, Mamadou Sarr presumes his son is dead.
“Alive? No. Because yesterday it happened in the sea,” Mamadou told the New York Post adding that the news was “very difficult to bear.” The father “was crying for a long time” over the presumed loss of his son.
Photo credit: New York Post screenshot)
Lamine and his two friends went swimming after playing video games all day according to Ezra Cummings, an associate of the teen boys.
Cummings said that the boys “were just gonna walk into the water.” He added that the teens “never went in below their waist.” However, the boys started losing feeling in their leg because of the ocean’s cold temperature and soon realized their feet weren’t touching the ground.
“They could feel something pulling them away from the beach,” said Cummings. “They tried to fight it. … They couldn’t. It pulled them out.”
When Lamine’s friends turned around to look for him, they realized that the 17-year-old was gone. Neither of the teens was strong swimmers Cummings stated.
One of the surviving teens paddled over to a jet and screamed for help.
A search team was notified but was called off due to high currents. Riptides posed a high risk on Saturday and posed life-threatening conditions for surfers according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, the search for Lamine continued on Sunday.
“This is very difficult to bear,” said Mamadou who’s already mourned his son. “I was crying for a long time.”
Lamine’s mother has yet to give up hope and believes her son is still alive. She told the news station that Lamine was “a good boy.”
The 17-year-old and his family moved from Senegal 11 years ago. He was a student at Channel View School for Research in Rockaway Park, Queens and was beginning his senior year. Lamine was not only an aspiring model, but he also played several musical instruments.