15-year-old boy dead, others hospitalized after being pulled from NJ beach

Tribune Content Agency

NEW YORK — A teenage boy who was pulled from the ocean near New Jersey’s Sandy Hook Beach on Sunday has died, officials said.

The 15-year-old was one of six people rescued from the ocean around 4:30 p.m. near the Gateway National Recreation Area’s Beach B, where no lifeguards were on duty, the National Park Service confirmed to the Daily News. He was pronounced dead after being hospitalized.

Four others were also hospitalized, while a fifth declined medical medical treatment. None of have been identified, and an update on their conditions was not available Monday afternoon.

“It has a never been a life-guarded beach,” NPS spokeswoman Daphne Yun said Monday.

Swimming was not permitted in the area, according to WABC. Witnesses told the TV station they heard a mother yell out that she couldn’t find her son.

“People jumped in the water, took three of them out. And then there was one missing that they couldn’t get,” Luis Sanchez said.

“They pulled him out, they started giving him CPR, and they couldn’t get him back.”

Sanchez described a “windy” day the beach, while a woman identified as Deborah said the rip current was “so bad.”

“I saw them floating down,” another witness, Marie Macera, told WABC. “They were drifting. I didn’t know there was trouble until they got over here.

“They all made a line with their hands to try to extend to get this kid to pull him out — but he had to be there a long time.”