The number of people to drown at city beaches crept up to six over the past week as police confirmed a 24-year-old man pulled from the Rockaway surf two weeks ago has died, officials said Saturday.
Kristoffer Williams was found floating in the water near Beach 95th St. about 5:10 p.m. on July 17. He was unconscious when EMS rushed him to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where he died.
While the city medical examiner has not determined exactly how Williams died, it’s believed he drowned, authorities said. Last year’s total of four drownings has already been surpassed.
“He was a kind, wonderful son and a devoted big brother,” Nicki Ledermann wrote on a GoFundMe post for Williams’ family, asking for donations to offset funeral costs and other expenses. “He had a soft voice and a laugh which made you laugh along with him. Everyone who met Kristoffer loved him instantly.”
Bighearted friends and family had donated more than $47,000 as of Saturday.
The post didn’t say Williams drowned, just that he “died in a tragic accident.”
Attempts to reach Williams’ family on Saturday were unsuccessful.
Williams’ mother is Anette Lian-Williams, a professional makeup artist who has worked on HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” according to the GoFundMe post. She also worked on Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” and “The Greatest Showman” with Hugh Jackman, according to her IMDb page.
Williams is the first swimmer to drown at a city beach while lifeguards were on duty, officials said. The five other deaths occurred after 6 p.m. when lifeguards had left the sand for the day.
On July 22, five days after Williams was pulled from the water, Moises Rodriguez, 30, was found drowned near Beach 96th St. about 12:30 a.m. — hours after he posted videos of himself enjoying the beach.
As of Thursday, the city medical examiner hadn’t officially determined how Rodriguez died.
The fatalities come despite the city employing 920 lifeguards at beaches throughout the city whose scans of the shoreline are augmented by drones flown by the NYPD, the FDNY and the Parks Department.
The drones are tasked with detecting swimmers in distress and can drop a flotation device the swimmer can grab on to. The flotation device inflates once it hits the water, officials said.
On June 21, Elyjha Chandler, 16, and Christian Perkins, 17, drowned at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways. Their bodies were found a week later. Christian and Elyjha were in the water near Bay 2 with friends when they were swept under the waves around 6:30 p.m., officials said.
Two other teens died at a city beach on July 5. Bronx sisters Zainab Mohammed, 17, and Aisha Mohammed, 18, drowned at Coney Island Beach.
Once it was learned that most of the victims drowned after 6 p.m., when city lifeguards are no longer on duty, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and other local leaders urged Mayor Adams to hire more lifeguards, and extend their hours.
Richards called each death a “preventable tragedy.”
“We’re an oceanfront city, 9 million people. Under no circumstances should we be struggling to hire lifeguards,” Richards said after the deaths of Elyjha and Christians. “Enough of the back-and-forth. This is about saving lives.”
