A man drowned Wednesday evening at Cramer Park Beach, the V.I. Police Department reported.
According to the police, officers were dispatched at roughly 6:35 p.m. to Cramer Park to investigate a possible drowning.
Arriving at the beach, they found the still body of a middle-aged, African American male lying in the sand, clad in a white T-shirt and denim shorts. Also at the scene were a man and woman, friends of the apparent drowning victim, who explained to officers that the three of them had been partying and drinking on the beach, and the pair had taken the deceased into the ocean to wash him off.
They said they’d left him alone for no more than five minutes, but then noticed he was missing and began searching for him in the water.
They said they discovered his body on the sandy bottom of the shoreline after a 10 minute search, pulled him onto the shore and attempted to perform CPR, but were unsuccessful.
The body of the man, whose identity was withheld by police pending notification of next of kin, was transported to the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center and was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m.
