Fisherman drowns at Seaside Park

This happened last week. A father got in trouble over there by the rocks, his son went to help him, and got carried away by the current. Every year a few more get killed by the strong currents. Thoughts and prayers to the family.

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Fisherman drowns at Seaside Park

By Daniel Tepfer
Staff writer
Updated: 07/07/2009 11:54:58 PM EDT



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Rescuers race to attempt to resuscitate a fisherman, after he was... (Phil Noel/Staff photographer)

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BRIDGEPORT -- A young Norwalk man swept into a current off a Seaside Park breakwater Tuesday afternoon drowned despite frantic efforts by bystanders and police to rescue him. Roberto C. Acevedo, 25, of Woodend Avenue, who was fishing on a breakwater opposite the Soldiers and Sailors Monument with his father, Roberto Acevedo, 53, was pronounced dead at Bridgeport Hospital shortly after his body was pulled from the water by police divers. The senior Acevedo was treated at the hospital for hypothermia and other non-life-threatening injuries.

The men began foundering in a strong current about 2 p.m. as they tried to swim back to shore when the tide prevented them from walking back on the breakwater, witnesses said.

Several onlookers jumped into the water in an attempt to help, but they found themselves struggling against the current, as well. Several of the would-be civilian rescuers had to be saved by lifeguards and were taken to local hospitals as a precaution.

Police divers, meanwhile, began searching for the younger Acevedo. The divers swam in a circular search pattern about a dozen yards from the beach for a half-hour before team leader, Lt. Chris Lamaine, finally signaled with a wave that they had found the body.

Police and firefighters rushed to the site in an inflatable boat and hauled the body of the young man on board. Firefighters immediately began administering CPR as the boat headed toward the beach, where more than a dozen emergency personnel waited. Once ashore, they continued life-saving efforts as they carried him to an ambulance.

"It was just so horrible," said Lorraine Dennis of Bridgeport, who watched the incident unfold. "I was sitting in my truck when I looked up and saw these two people on the rocks. When they got to the end of the rocks, the older man jumped in the water. The younger man handed him the fishing stuff and then he jumped in."

"The older man was trying to get to shore, but was having trouble and people began running from their cars and jumping in the water to help him," she said. "I looked, but I didn't see the younger man anymore."

Nina Dumas, of Bridgeport, said the two men had been fishing from the breakwater when it began to rain.
"They jumped into the water and were trying to get to shore, but the kid was yelling, 'Help, help!' " she recounted.

Police Capt. James Viadero said the father and son were fishing when storm clouds began forming overhead. He said the senior Acevedo, wearing a backpack and carrying fishing gear, stepped off the breakwater onto a narrow spit of sand that formed a path to shore. However, the father began having trouble walking in the loose sand, sinking or falling into the water. Viadero said the son went to his father's aid, but soon found himself trapped in the current.

A number of bystanders, including two passing Water Pollution Control Authority employees, ran into the water and managed to pull the father to shore. But Viadero said despite heroic efforts, they were unable to find the son, who had disappeared beneath the water.
He said the Police Department's Marine 1 vessel was dispatched to the scene and circled the area looking for the victim until the divers arrived.