GEORGETOWN, MASS. (WHDH) - A 17-year-old boy from Lawrence drowned while swimming in Georgetown Saturday afternoon, according to Georgetown Police and Fire Departments.
The incident happened at Pentucket Pond, near the American Legion Park.
According to police, officers received a 911 call of a possible drowning at the pond shortly before 3:00 p.m.
Georgetown Police and Fire Departments immediately responded to the area. Firefighters entered the water to search for the victim, and also requested a dive team.
The Beverly Fire Department’s Dive Team entered the water shortly after 3:30 p.m.
A Beverly firefighter recovered the victim shortly before 3:45 p.m., about 30 feet from the shoreline in 15 feet of water.
The victim was identified as 17-year-old Dewel Ortiz of Lawrence.
Police said Ortiz cried out as he struggled in the water.
Ortiz’s friends said they thought he could swim.
“He wanted to swim deep with me, I said ‘OK, let’s go’,” his friend Tanisha Lewis said. “The next thing you know he was drowning.”
The incident is under investigation by the Georgetown Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.
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