A teenager was rescued from drowning by three Good Samaritans at New York City’s Coney Island Beach.
Two teenagers got caught in the strong surf of the popular beach near West 22nd Street, when they began to struggle.
Navy veteran Fernando Agurto, 69, had previously warned the two boys that the water was “very dangerous,” when he had been in the surf himself.
They ignored his warning and continued to play in the ocean after he got out. He realized they were in serious trouble when he was relaxing on the beach.
“I was laid down and I saw a lady screaming,” he remarked, noting that someone else hollered “Save my brother!”
That’s when he sprang into action with two other men, including John McLean, who was reading a newspaper on the beach when he heard the commotion.
“Kids are in the water drowning,” he explained. “I responded with another gentleman.”
“We got the one child out. The other one was bobbing. We went out after him after we got the one out,” McLean commented.
Agurto scolded the 14-year-old for failing to heed his warning about the waves as the men pulled him out.
Agurto got injured by rocks in the water as he swam out for the second boy, but the other two men went after him. Unfortunately, they were seconds too late.
“They tried to get him, but a wave came,” he detailed. “If I hadn’t hit the rock, I would have gotten him.”
The beach was clearly marked closed with signs that indicated the waters was dangerous and there were no lifeguards on duty at the time.
Rescue teams from both the NYPD and NYFD searched the water from the land and in the sea, but were unable to locate the 15-year-old boy.
The men who rescued the younger boy are devestated that they couldn’t reach the other one in time.
“We saved one, but I felt like I did half a job today,” McClean told Fox News somberly.
