Boy, 8, Drowns in Bradley Beach
By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
An 8-year-old boy drowned in Bradley Beach Tuesday night on the Newark Avenue beach, two beaches away from where a lifeguard tournament had just finished.
Lifeguards competing in the tournament heard yelling and screaming and ran to join in the search for the boy, Trevon Taylor.
They also alerted the Bradley Beach police.
According to Bradley Beach Police Chief Leonard Guida, a call came into the department at 8:34 p.m. from lifeguards.
We received a call that there was a person in distress and possibly submerged at the Newark Avenue beach, he said.
Guida, who noted that the boy was swimming after hours in unprotected waters, said the boy was under the water for about half an hour.
They worked on him for quite a while, said Guida.
Taylor, who lived on Park Place Avenue, was playing in the water near the Newark Avenue jetty.
Guida said the A.N.S.W.E.R. water rescue team responded and began searching for Taylor.
A.N.S.W.E.R. is comprised of rescuers from surrounding towns.
The ironic thing is that it happened 300 yards away from the lifeguard tournament, Guida said.
The police chief said the response from the lifeguards was immediate. The boy was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead by Dr. Samuel Thomas at 9:40 p.m.
Eyewitness Patricia Philips of Ocean Park Avenue said she saw emergency responders working on the boy, but could not tell if he was alive.
A woman accompanied by two or three other children were put into the ambulance, she said, before it drove away.
One of the lifeguards told me he didnt make it he was under too long, she said.
Philips said many people leaving the beach, including rescuers, appeared shaken.
Some of the lifeguards were really shook up, she said.
After scuba divers found the boy, many on the beach began clapping, but unfortunately it was only to acknowledge rescuers efforts.
It was pitch black up there, I dont know how anyone saw anything, she said.
Assistant Supervisor of Bradley Beach lifeguards Rob Rosenberg said the lifeguard tournament had just ended.
I was there; we heard yelling and screaming that there was someone in the water, he said. We had just finished and were packing up. The guards ran down en masse and started searching.
Rosenberg said it was a baby sitter who began yelling.
There were a few children in the water, he said.
The parents were not there; they came later, said Rosenberg.
Rosenberg would not say for sure that a rip current was the reason for the drowning, but said water near the rock jetties is usually hairier than the rest of the beach.
Usually, he said, there is some kind of pull near the rocks.
He went into the water; it was over his head within seconds and only eight years old…. said Rosenberg.
Contact Joanne Papaianni at joanne@thecoaster.net.
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