At least three people are dead or missing after mishaps in the region’s waters on Independence Day. A child drowned at a crowded state park in Annapolis. A young man disappeared after being thrown from a boat in Anne Arundel County. A fireworks spectator died after he slipped from his boat into the Potomac River.
First Monday came the drowning of a 6-year-old boy at Sandy Point State Park near the northwestern shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland Natural Resources Police spokesman Sgt. Art Windemuth said Saquan L. Kennedy, of Baltimore City, finished breakfast about 8 a.m., went to a bathhouse with about a dozen children, then jumped into the water with his friends. The area was not a designated swimming area and was not patrolled by lifeguards, police said.
Saquan went under, and the children ran to get help from adults, Windemuth said. Beachgoers formed a chain to look for Saquan in the area where he disappeared and pulled him from the about 4 feet of water.
About 4:30 p.m., police got a call of a boating accident near Dobbins Island in Anne Arundel County. Windemuth said 25-year-old James Robert Kane, of Pasadena, Md., and a friend were thrown from a 17-foot Carolina Skiff after attempting a sharp turn at the mouth of the Magothy River. The other man was picked up by a passing boat, but Kane could not be found despite a search by underwater divers, Maryland State Police helicopters, area police and the Coast Guard. The search continued Tuesday, but Kane has not been found.
Later, in D.C., an hour after the last of the fireworks exploded over the nation’s memorials and landmarks, another man died.
D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said authorities received a call for a man in the water about a half-mile south of the Arlington Memorial Bridge about 10:45 p.m. Monday.
Witnesses said the man, whose identity police have not released, was untieing his boat from other boats when he slipped and apparently hit his head and fell into the water, Piringer said. The medical examiner has not determined the cause of death, and D.C. police are investigating the death.
In Montgomery County, a Gaithersburg man nearly drowned after he went into the water to retrieve a radio-controlled sailboat in Gunners Lake in Germantown.
Montgomery County police said the 38-year-old man and a friend were operating a radio-controlled sailboat on the lake shortly before 7 p.m. when the 2-foot-long boat became disabled about 30 yards from the shore.
The man, whose name was not released, had difficulty getting back to shore, yelled to his friend for help, then disappeared into the water, police said. His friend got into the water and brought the man back to shore. The friend and a bystander began CPR while another bystander called 911. Rescue crews took the man to a hospital. He remains in critical condition, a police spokeswoman said late Tuesday.
