Metro

Man drowned celebrating pal’s graduation in NYC river

A group of Brooklyn pals who went on an all-night bender to celebrate a friend’s graduation ended up at the East River — where one of the men jumped in and never made it back out, cops said.

Steven Middleton, 21, was quickly caught in the swift current and was swept away as he shouted out to his friends.

“His last words were, ‘I love you guys,’ ” a pal who was on the pier told The Post.

Middleton and five others had slipped through a fence opening near the Williamsburg Bridge at 5:30 a.m. to get to a pier with a ladder leading down to the water.

“We didn’t think the water was going to be that bad,” one of the buddies said.

“I was going to jump in first, but he said he would. He was the strongest swimmer.”

Middleton went into the dark river, and the others helplessly watched as he panicked and struggled to stay afloat until finally going under.

“He was being pulled away toward the middle of the river, toward Manhattan,” the pal said.

“He was trying to swim against the current. He kept trying — but he couldn’t make it.”

Emergency service workers search the East River near North 3rd Street in Williamsburg.Seth Gottfried

The men had been drinking together and then went to a diner in Bushwick. They came up with the idea to go for an early-morning dip when they got to the pier.

Witness Manual Aguila, 30, said at first, he saw the group “having a good time” near the pier. “When I came back, the kids were screaming help at the NYPD raft that was passing by. One of the kids was on the phone with 911. I heard him saying, ‘He went under!’ ”

Darius Seward, 23, said Middleton knew how to swim, but the current was “too strong” and swept him away as soon as he jumped in.

Middleton was supposed to graduate from Medgar Evers College next year, according to his Facebook page. He lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant with his mom and four siblings. He celebrated his 21st birthday a week ago.

Just two days ago, Middleton shared a friend’s advice-filled Facebook post — warning kids to keep out of trouble — on his own page. “Keep y’all away from violence OR a good head on y’all shoulders to know to stay away from the mix,” the post read.

Last week, two 13-year-old cousins drowned when they jumped into the Bronx River.