Ocean claims fourth victim

Jenny Marder

The fourth drowning this summer was reported last week at Sunset

Beach when a Lakewood resident was discovered floating face down in

the water.

Richard Brown, 25, was unconscious by the time two beachgoers

found him at 3:45 p.m. and pulled him from the water. Several

lifeguard units began CPR and continued until the paramedics arrived

and rushed him to Los Alamitos Medical Center. He was pronounced dead

at 4:30 p.m.

The drowning occurred near 24th Street, between lifeguard towers

21 and 26, a notoriously busy stretch, said Patti Schooley, a parks

district supervisor in charge of coastal facilities for county

operated beaches.

The waves were about three feet and surf conditions were fairly

calm at the time of the incident, Schooley said. Nobody in the water

or at the beach saw Brown struggling.

“He was found approximately 20 feet from the shoreline,” Schooley

said. “That’s really not very far. It’s a shallow water incident.”

But Brown could still have been caught in underwater currents,

difficult to spot from the shoreline, she said.

“It just underscores how deceptive the ocean can be,” Schooley

said. “If you’re an inexperienced swimmer, the water can be dangerous

at times. It’s a very hazardous condition unto itself.”

Hot and humid conditions inland and an ocean as warm as bathwater

have drawn scores of people toward the surf, crowding beaches day and

night. But with this has come a rise in drownings, several of which

have occurred after sundown, when lifeguards are not on duty.

The body of high school football standout Drean Rucker, 18, was

recovered Saturday after a search that lasted nearly a week. People

out riding personal watercrafts found the 6-foot-2, 235-pound USC

football recruit at 8:30 in the morning north of the Huntington Beach

Pier.

Rucker disappeared underwater just after 8 p.m. near state beach

lifeguard tower No. 6, between Brookhurst Street and Magnolia Avenue.

He had gone for a swim with friends while attending a cookout at the

beach.

Brown’s death marks the fourth in a series of recent drownings at

Sunset and Huntington beaches. A 14-year-old disappeared while

swimming fully clothed near tower No. 2 at Huntington State Beach,

June 25. Three weeks later, a 22-year-old man drowned while

boogie-boarding at Huntington City Beach.

It’s unfortunate that there have been four drownings countywide in

such a short period in time, Schooley said. “It’s tragic.”