The drowning suicide that shook an island

The drowning suicide that shook an island

By Kristin J. Bender
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 06/05/2011

ALAMEDA -- Only two people went into the chilly San Francisco Bay waters Monday to help a suicidal Raymond Zack and neither wore a police or firefighter uniform.

When Zack, 52, despondent and depressed, walked fully clothed into the bay at Robert Crown Memorial State Beach to take his own life, at least 10 Alameda firefighters and police officers made the choice not to come to his aid. They stood on the beach and watched, for about an hour.

Their decision not to retrieve the man from the 55-degree bay waters when it was clear the U.S. Coast Guard was not going to be able to rescue him in time raises the question: When should first responders ignore protocol and provide lifesaving support?

"I believe that the value of life supersedes man-made laws. Why is there confusion about that?" said Jack Hoban, who cowrites the column "The Ethical Warrior" for PoliceOne.com and is also president of Resolution Group International, a New Jersey-based group that conducts leadership and ethics training.

Firefighters say they could not enter the water because budget cuts two years ago did not allow the department to recertify in land-based water rescues. A rescue attempt would have opened the city to liability. Police said they did not know if Zack, 6 feet 3 and 280 pounds, was violent, armed or had drugs in his system.
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The drowning suicide that shook an island

Fort Carson soldier drowns in Skagway Reservoir

Fort Carson soldier drowns in Skagway Reservoir
By Jakob Rodgers
The Gazette

A Fort Carson soldier drowned over the weekend in a reservoir near Victor.

Staff Sgt. Robert Shetler, 27, was pulled from Skagway Reservoir on Friday by friends who he was supposed to meet that day, said Al Born, the Teller County coroner. His friends tried CPR while other people drove on a dirt road to reach cell phone reception and call for help.



Read more: Fort Carson soldier drowns in Skagway Reservoir - The Denver Post
Fort Carson soldier drowns in Skagway Reservoir

Family seeks answers in death of diver trainee

Family seeks answers in death of diver trainee
By Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 29, 2011 10:02:24 EDT

MARCUS YAM Damien Gennino and Denise Carter, are shown at home in Elmont, N.Y., with a photo of Capt. Juan Lightfoot, a former Marine, who died after he lost consciousness during dive training.

Elmont, N.Y. — It was the third day of Special Forces pre-scuba training and Capt. Juan E. Lightfoot was exhausted.

He gripped the edge of the pool and refused to let go. But an instructor peeled his hands from the edge of the pool and another dragged him away from the wall.

Lightfoot went limp and sank to the bottom of the 11-foot, 6-inch-deep pool. Despite efforts to revive him, Lightfoot never woke up.

Four days later, his family had him removed from life support.

The armed forces medical examiner ruled Lightfoot’s death a homicide.
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Family seeks answers in death of diver trainee

Veteran of Beirut bombing remembered after drowning death

Drowning victim remembered as a good man, former Marine by friends

By Don Lehman--dlehman@poststar.com

GLENS FALLS -- The Glens Falls man who drowned in a stream near Hovey Pond Park last weekend was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Beirut in the 1980s, with friends saying he survived the 1983 barracks bombing there that killed hundreds.

Jeffrey Miswell was a disabled veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from his time overseas, according to his roommate, Randy Mlenar. Miswell was honorably discharged, he said.

Mlenar and a former neighbor of Miswell's said he was in the Marine Corps barracks that was bombed in October 1983, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and women. A 1983 Post-Star article confirmed he was in Beirut as a U.S. Marine at the time.

Miswell, 47, died Saturday night after he fell into a stream that drains Hovey Pond while fishing. He fell several feet off a concrete wall, and police don't know what caused him to fall.

Mlenar, a former Marine with whom Miswell lived in an apartment on Bay Street, fought back tears as he talked about his longtime friend.
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Drowning victim remembered as a good man, former Marine by friends

Fort Stewart soldier drowns in on-base pond

Stewart soldier drowns in on-base pond
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Feb 13, 2011 11:59:12 EST
FORT STEWART, Ga. — A Fort Stewart soldier drowned Saturday in a recreational pond at the base.

WTOC-TV reported that emergency workers went to the scene after getting a call from fishermen who saw the soldier fall into the water. A rescue attempt was unsuccessful.

Military authorities did not release the soldier's name on Sunday.

The incident is under investigation.
Stewart soldier drowns in on-base pond

Australian flood teen's sacrifice to save brother

Australian flood teen's sacrifice to save brother
By Bryony Jones, CNN
January 13, 2011 2:45 p.m. EST
Jordan Rice was swept to his death when floodwaters surrounded his family's car in Toowoomba.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Family trapped on roof of car as floodwaters rose in Toowoomba
Teenager pleads with rescuers to save his younger brother first
Mother and son swept to their deaths in the torrent
(CNN) -- A teenager who was scared of water drowned in the Queensland floods after begging rescuers to save his younger brother first.
Jordan Rice, 13, and his mother Donna, 43, were swept away as a wall of water hit the town of Toowoomba on Monday afternoon.
His family has hailed the youngster's selfless actions.

"Jordan can't swim and is terrified of water," his father, John Tyson, told local newspaper The Toowoomba Chronicle. "But when the man went to rescue him, he said 'save my brother first.'
"I can only imagine what was going on inside to give up his life to save his brother, even though he was petrified of water. He is our little hero."
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Australian flood teen's sacrifice to save brother

Visitor to SeaWorld water park in
Florida found dead

From John Couwels, CNN

October 4, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Unresponsive man was pulled from a pool, pronounced dead at a hospital
Sheriff's Office is investigating the death by interviewing witnesses, victim's family
Autopsy to be performed on 68-year-old man, sheriff says


(CNN) -- A guest at SeaWorld's water park Aquatica in Orlando, Florida, was pulled from a pool and later pronounced dead over the weekend, park officials said.
A lifeguard found a 68-year-old international visitor unresponsive Saturday morning in the park's Roa's Rapids, a SeaWorld spokesman said.
Visitor to SeaWorld water park in Florida found dead

Soldier's Body Pulled From Pond

Soldier's Body Pulled From Pond
Police: Man Had Been Drinking Before Apparent Drowning
August 16, 2010
CLAYTON, Ind. -- An Indiana National Guard soldier's body was pulled from a pond in Hendricks County early Monday morning after his apparent drowning over the weekend.

The Hendricks County Sheriff's Department said the body of Spc. Samuel Donahue, 21, was recovered at about 3 a.m., two days after he was last seen.

Officers had been told that Donahue hadn't been accounted for since Saturday morning after he consumed alcohol at a bar and at a home on County Road 400 South, Lt. Jim Yetter said.

"He had been out drinking with some friends Friday night into Saturday morning," Lt. Jim Yetter. "They had come to this residence and had been swimming in the pond."

Yetter said Donahue and a friend left the pond and went into the house, but that the other man woke up later, didn't see Donahue and thought he had gone home.

Donahue's girlfriend filed the missing persons report after determining that no one knew where he was.
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Soldier Body Pulled From Pond

Drowning victim was decorated Vietnam veteran

Drowning victim was decorated Vietnam veteran
By JOSH STILTS / Reformer Staff
August 12, 2010
JAMAICA -- The man who drowned in Townshend Lake on Aug. 6 has been identified as Kendall Query, 65, of Jamaica, according to Vermont State Police.

Sgt. Tara Thomas said there's nothing suspicious about the death but a ruling won't be made until the toxicology report is returned, which could take six to eight weeks.

Query, who served in the Vietnam War, was awarded the Purple Heart and was honorably discharged.

Suzanne Sylvester, Query's wife, said her husband was a man of many talents and truly loved his community.

"He was an avid rock climber and ski instructor," Sylvester said. "After retiring from the banking industry, he worked as a finishing carpenter and painter. He must have painted half the houses in town."

When Query returned home from Vietnam, he -- like many soldiers -- suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, his wife said.

"We dealt with it together for many years," she said.
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Drowning victim was decorated Vietnam veteran

Little League Coach Died As A Hero

First-Class Little League Coach Meets Tragic End

David Whitley
National Columnist
Darin McGahey did not intend to die a hero. He was just a regular guy who liked to do regular things.

That's how he ended up at the beach that day. McGahey was a youth-league baseball coach, and his team had traveled from Georgia to Florida for a big tournament.

A few kids got caught in the Navarre Beach surf and started yelling for help. McGahey couldn't have known what would happen next. He just did what came naturally and dived right in.

"He loved to help kids," his brother, Jeff, said.

He helped pluck them out of the water. Then the waves swept him away.

"Man, I can't tell you what a tragedy this has been," said Bubba Smith, a USSSA tournament director.

It's been tragic for McGahey's family, of course. And tragic for all his friends around McDonough, Ga.

It hasn't been tragic for the rest of us. It is a shame that it takes a hero's death to appreciate people like McGahey.

"He was just a simple guy," Jeff McGahey said.
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First Class Little League Coach Meets Tragic End

Indiana soldier presumed dead after swimming accident

Indiana soldier presumed dead after swimming accident
Fox59
11:36 AM EDT, June 2, 2010

Specialist Anthony Carter along with four other soldiers rented a boat over the Memorial Day Weekend in Taylorsville, Kentucky. Carter's friends said he was swimming and went under as he tried to get back to the boat.

Man, girl dead, 2nd girl grave, in Pine Hills drowning

Man, girl dead, 2nd girl grave, in Pine Hills drowning

Susan Jacobson

Sentinel Staff Writer

12:48 a.m. EDT, October 17, 2009


Philippe Casseus was sitting by the porch of his Pine Hills condo, reading his Bible and keeping an eye on his 16-year-old daughter and her friend as they played in the community pool.

In an instant, tragedy struck as the girls began to drown. Casseus ran to save them, but he succumbed. None of the three could swim, said Diesseul Casseus, 58, Philippe Casseus' father.

"My first son and my first granddaughter," he sobbed at the Balboa Drive condo he shared with Philippe and Ruth Casseus.

Although the girl's grandfather said she had died, deputies said late Friday that she was in grave condition at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. Her friend, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at Health Central in Ocoee.

The accident happened a little after 5 p.m. at Laurel Hills condominiums.

Jermichael Johnson, 28, had just arrived home from work at a Publix warehouse and heard Orange County K-9 Deputy Ronnie Bradshaw yelling for help.

The deputy had been on patrol nearby and responded to a 911 call.
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Man, girl dead, 2nd girl grave, in Pine Hills drowning

Family, colleagues mourn Southampton police officer

Photo credit: Joseph D. Sullivan | Victoria Nemes, the wife of officer Michael Nemes, follows the coffin after the funeral mass in Rocky Point. (Aug. 28, 2009)

Family, colleagues mourn Southampton police officer
August 28, 2009
By SUMATHI REDDY


A motorcade of police motorcycles and cars pulled into St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church. And the hundreds of white-gloved police officers lined up Friday outside of the Rocky Point church stood tall and saluted as they prepared to say goodbye to one of their own.

Michael Nemes, 37, a five-year veteran with the Southampton Town Police Department and a former New York City Police Department officer, was killed last weekend in North Carolina while riding a personal watercraft. Officials have said Nemes, of Eastport, drowned but they are still investigating his death.
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Family colleagues mourn Southampton police officer

Skydiving and swimming claim lives of two soldiers

Purple Heart recipient drowns in S.C. lake
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Aug 3, 2009 12:39:27 EDT

ANDERSON, S.C. — A National Guard soldier who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan has drowned in a lake along the Georgia-South Carolina border.

Multiple media outlets report that 28-year-old Brad Daniel Seawright’s body was recovered Sunday morning by divers searching Lake Russell.
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Purple Heart recipient drowns in S.C. lake

Soldier killed in Va. skydiving incident

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Aug 3, 2009 9:38:28 EDT

WEST POINT, Va. — State police have identified the body of a man killed in a skydiving accident Saturday.

Command Sgt. Major Harry Parrish, 53, of Fort Meade, Md., was found Sunday morning near Middle Peninsula Regional Airport, not far from the town of West Point, about 40 miles east of Richmond.
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Soldier killed in Va. skydiving incident

Families of two boys presumed drowned in the Green River gathered on the riverbank Saturday

COURTNEY BLETHEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Family of boys keeps vigil at Green River
David Mundell, center, hugs his mother, Karen Green, as family and friends gather Saturday along the Green River where two boys are missing and presumed drowned.
Mundell is the stepfather of Austin Fuda, 13, who was in a car that went into the river Friday.
Family, friends of boys keep vigil at Green River

Families of two boys presumed drowned in the Green River gathered on the riverbank Saturday.

By Nicole Tsong

Seattle Times staff reporter

AUBURN — On the banks of the Green River, the parents of 13-year-old Austin Fuda stood and wept.

Saturday marked their first pilgrimage to the site where a car carrying Austin and 2-year-old cousin Hunter Beaupre went into the river Friday morning. The driver, Austin's 16-year-old stepsister, swam to safety.

Officials suspended the search for the boys Friday because of the swift current, which had worsened by Saturday. Rescuers believe they know where the car is and that the boys are in it, but they need a couple of days without rain before they can bring them out, said King County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

The river was flowing at about 2,900 cubic feet per second when the car went into the water and swelled to more than 4,000 by Saturday morning, he said. The current needs to be below 2,000 cubic feet per second before it's safe for divers to go in, Urquhart said.

"It's just way too fast and too dangerous to go in there," he said.
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Neighbor 'gave his life for my child'

Neighbor 'gave his life for my child'
Indiana man, dad drown trying to save 10-year-old boy
By Stacy St. Clair | Chicago Tribune reporter
September 16, 2008
Todd and Kari Zehner grappled with conflicting emotions Monday: joy that their 10-year-old son, Doug, had survived a near drowning and deep sorrow that two next-door neighbors died trying to save him.

Doug and two friends were dipping their feet in the swollen creek near his Chesterton, Ind., home Sunday morning when he slipped and was sucked into the round mouth of a steel culvert. Next door, Mark Thanos, a high school English teacher and coach, heard his wife scream, sped out of the house and jumped into the roiling creek. When Thanos struggled, his 74-year-old father, John, followed him into the water. Both would die at the scene.

The strong current pushed Doug through the 3-foot-wide culvert and dumped him out about 20 feet downstream. Victoria Thanos pulled the boy from the water, unaware that her 48-year-old husband and her father-in-law had not resurfaced.

The Zehners and Thanoses now realize that one rain-soaked weekend in September has forever linked the families in tragedy. The families were quick to console each other. And in keeping with Mark Thanos' legacy, everyone made a concerted effort to comfort the curly-haired boy who never meant for any of it to happen.
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Tragedy as Groton MA father dies trying to save daughter

Father drowns in Chatham rescue attempt
Man dies during swim in Maine
By Matt Collette
Globe Correspondent / September 1, 2008

A 46-year-old Groton man drowned yesterday at Lighthouse Beach in Chatham after attempting to rescue his 10-year-old daughter, who was swept into the ocean by strong currents, while a 68-year-old Lowell man died during a swim in Sebago Lake in Maine.

The two deaths came on a busy holiday weekend day that also saw several ocean rescues and the Coast Guard responding to reports that a man had slipped off a raft at Winthrop Beach. As of last night, the Winthrop search had been suspended, with Coast Guard officials saying an unmanned raft had probably blown into the ocean from shore.

Thomas McDonald, 46, of Groton, was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital yesterday afternoon. He lost consciousness swimming after his daughter, who had been overcome by waves at the beach and swept out to sea, Chatham officials said. The girl and two women who swam out to assist in the rescue were pulled from the water by Chatham Harbormaster patrol boats.

"It's just tragic, he was doing a valiant thing trying to go after his daughter who was caught in the current," said Chatham harbormaster Stuart Smith. "I don't know the man but he was certainly one brave individual. "

Smith praised the responders for their quick action and called Tanya O'Donnell, a 17-year-old Harwich lifeguard who swam 100 yards to the girl and stayed with her until patrol boats arrived, a hero. "Quite frankly, without her intervention, we might have lost the girl," Smith said.
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4 drown, 3 missing at New York beaches

4 drown, 3 missing at New York beaches
Story Highlights
Strong currents, rough seas reported at Long Island, New York City beaches

Among drowning victims was girl, 10, who was playing in waters off Coney Island

Man drowns in 3 to 5 feet of water while playing football at Long Beach

NEW YORK (AP) -- Rescuers suspended their search Sunday for a 10-year-old girl in the water off Coney Island, one of three swimmers still missing from powerful ocean currents at New York City and Long Island beaches over the weekend.


Some authorities said the spate of swimmers being swept away seemed unprecedented.

Four other victims drowned at local beaches Friday and Saturday, authorities said.

The search for the girl was suspended Sunday afternoon pending further developments, Coast Guard Cmdr. Gregory Hitchen said.

Akira Johnson was pulled under by currents while swimming with her cousin Saturday afternoon. Her cousin, Tyriek Currie, also 10, was rescued.

The children's grandfather, Charles German, went to the beach Sunday to watch the search effort. He said the family was doing as well as could be expected.

With a steady punch of stronger rip currents possible over the weekend, "only experienced surf swimmers should enter the waters," said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Connolly.
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Iraq Veteran Chris Johnson remembered after Susquehanna River death

Family, friends warmly remember Iraq veteran

But when tomorrow starts without me, please try to understand, that an angel came and called my name, and took me by the hand;
She said my place was ready, in heaven far above, and that I'd have to leave behind all those I dearly love.
— Erica Shea Liupaeter, read by Chris Johnson's fiancée, Kristy Callahan.

Ashley Johnson said her brother, Chris, was someone on whom she could always rely.

He was a loving and loyal sibling who once drove several hours to see his baby sister off to her first homecoming dance and meet her first boyfriend.

He was the kind of brother anybody would be lucky to have.

And then there was that teeny-tiny baby-sitting incident.

"The first time our parents let him baby-sit me, he drew a circle on the floor and told me I had to sit in the circle the entire time or else Mom and Dad wouldn't come home," she said.

"Well, Mom and Dad did come home, and sure enough, there I was sitting in the circle."

Ashley recounted the memory for about 400 people who packed into West Willow United Methodist Church Tuesday to remember Chris Johnson, the Penn Manor graduate and Iraq War veteran who died in a boating accident on the Susquehanna River.

Johnson's bass boat was still running when it was found May 21 near the York County shoreline, just south of Long Level. His Labrador retriever puppy, Bubba, was on the boat, along with fishing gear and personal items. Police believe Johnson, 24, fell overboard. His body was found May 28 after a weeklong search that included 45 rescue organizations.


Johnson, a former U.S. Marine Corps lance corporal, was a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and received the Purple Heart. He lost his right arm after it was injured during a June 2004 firefight near Fallujah.
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http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/222517