Teen who drowned in waters off Queens park loved to swim, mom says

A young man who drowned after he was overcome by the waves off Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways loved to swim, his distraught mother said Sunday.

“He did, he did,” the heartbroken mother of Amadou Thiam, 19, said, weeping during a brief interview with the Daily News Sunday.

“He was a good child. He was a good child,” the mom repeated. She did not give her name. “Perfect— and it’s too much for us to bear. It’s too much to bear. But he was a good child. He was a lovely child…. That’s all I can say.”

Thiam was the second person to have drowned at city beaches since Thursday — when a 15-year-old boy swimming with his older brother off a Coney Island beach in Brooklyn, was pulled under the waves. Police recovered the teen’s body Saturday night.

In Queens, the NYPD Harbor Unit rushed to the national park at about 7:42 p.m. Friday when witnesses saw the teen go under the waves. Thiam washed up on the shore unconscious, and medics rushed him to Coney Island Hospital, where he died late Friday night.

Lifeguards were on duty at the park until 6 p.m., according to the National Park Service website.

City Councilman Ari Kagan said the teen’s death on Coney Island Thursday could have been prevented if the city had more lifeguards on duty. Red flags stating “no lifeguards” were posted in the area where the teens went in Thursday, witnesses said.

The boy was swimming with his older brother in the waters near W. 22nd St. and Surf Ave. when both were pulled under. Witnesses managed to save the older brother. Both NYPD and FDNY divers were sent in to search the water for his sibling, but found nothing.

The body of the missing teen was found about 9:19 p.m. Saturday floating near W. 22nd St., not far from where he vanished, said the sources.