Rescue workers abandon search for teen swept away at Coney Island Beach

Rescue workers halted the search for a 15-year-old boy swept away Thursday in the surf at Brooklyn’s Coney Island Beach, police said.

Three NYPD divers and an FDNY diver searched for the missing teen, whose companion, a 16-year-old boy, was pulled to safety before authorities got there. The 15-year-old swimmer could not be found.

“Despite the dedicated efforts to find him,” Parks Department spokesman Izzy Verdery said, “the search was called off around 3:30 p.m. and the swimmer was not recovered.”

The drama unfolded around 12:38 p.m. near W. 22nd St. and Surf Ave.

The teens, swimming together, appeared to be drowning, authorities said.

Cops and firefighters raced to the scene, with police divers dramatically jumping into the surf from NYPD helicopters.

Fernando Agurto, 69, of Sunset Park, was splashing around in the surf himself when he saw the boys cooling off in the ocean.

“I was in the water and the two kids were playing,” Agurto said. “I said, ‘Please be careful, the water is very dangerous.’”

He said the boys didn’t give him a hard time, but continued to frolic in the ocean.

“They were very respectful kids, jumping around,” Agurto remarked.

He said he realized there was trouble when he set himself down to rest in the sand.

“I was laid down and I saw a lady screaming,” he said. He added that someone yelled: “Save my brother, save my brother!”

Agurto said that he told a woman in a green Parks Department uniform standing nearby to get a life preserver — but there were none immediately available.

“I ran from here and I went into the water. Two guys helped me,” said the beachgoer, a Navy veteran.

The men pulled one terrified teen from the water.

“I said, ‘You should have listened to me!’ And he was crying,” the good Samaritan said.

He said he went out to rescue the other young swimmer, but the conditions were too difficult.

“Near that rock is very deep — and I’m telling you, deep. So I hit the rock,” Agunto said, showing scrapes on his calves.

As he struggled at the rocks, Agunto felt a pang that prevented him from reaching the other teen. Two other men swam out past him, he said, but a wave washed over the boy.

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“They tried to get him, but a wave came,” he recounted. “If I hadn’t hit the rock, I would have gotten him.”

The section of Coney Island where the boy went missing — east of W. 19th St. — was closed to swimming on Thursday when temperatures reached into the 90s.

A sign in the area warned beachgoers: “Only swim or wade when lifeguards are on duty, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Memorial Day weekend to the Sunday after Labor Day.”

Red flags in the sand marked off the closed beach area and another sign said, “DANGER: DROWNING RISK.”

“The young man probably would have been alive if there were lifeguards here,” said one beachgoer, who declined to give his name.

Parks Department officials did not say why that part of the beach was closed.

Originally Published: Jul 27, 2023 at 3:22 pm