ANGUISH: Akeem Brown searches in vain for his friend in the Rockaway surf yesterday. (Damian F. Leslie)
ANGUISH: Akeem Brown searches in vain for his friend in the Rockaway surf yesterday. (
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‘SO MUCH POTENTIAL’: Tragic Akeem Craig was a member of the August Martin HS football team and took care of his siblings, said relatives. (
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A Queens teen drowned in the treacherous waters off Far Rockaway yesterday after going to the beach with pals and jumping in the ocean to celebrate the last day of classes.
One buddy tried desperately to save 14 year-old Akeem Craig after he was carried out by a wave — and is haunted by being unable to do so.
“I went out to get him and he was pulling me under the water,” the friend, 15-year-old Akeem Brown, told The Post. “He was holding my neck and he said, ‘Don’t let me go, don’t let me go.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to let you go.’
“He was crying, then he started vomiting. He let go and I came up to get air.” Seconds later, Craig was out of Brown’s sight.
“Every time I close my eyes, I can hear him calling me,” said a heartbroken Brown.
Craig, 14, a sophomore at August Martin HS in Jamaica, had gone into the water at about noon — despite being unable to swim, a friend said.
His mom, Raquel Williams, was devastated.
“He had so much potential, he could have done anything he wanted,” she said.
“I don’t want to accept this. I can’t describe the feeling. My heart is broken,” said a sobbing Williams, 38.
The boys, along with four others from school, were in an area out of lifeguards’ view. Locals had warned them that the surf was unsafe due to rain and heavy winds.
“They were having a good time,” fisherman Reginald Whitley, 53, said of the boys. “Then the cops came and the ambulance came and the helicopters came.
“They failed to listen to the advice,” added Whitley, who has fished in the area for 26 years.
“And this water is very, very dangerous.”
After Brown, the victim’s courageous pal, headed back to shore, he was pulled to safety by a good Samaritan.
It took 40 minutes for rescuers, including at least four divers, to reach Craig and bring him ashore near Beach 19th Street.
He was pronounced dead at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital.
“The family is trying to grasp what has happened today,” Craig’s uncle, Fitz Ralph, 42, said outside their South Jamaica home, where dozens of family members gathered.
“His mother is inconsolable beyond words. This is all so sudden and unbelievable,” Ralph said.
Williams, a home health aide, said her son was “a very loving child. He looked after his two sisters.”
Craig was involved at his school, playing safety on the football team and volunteering for a group that promotes AIDS awareness.
The Department of Education refused to say if the kids had left school early or had been dismissed.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Frank Rosario & Yoav Gonen,