2 men rescued off Mastic Beach; 1 critical
A man from Queens is clinging to life after he and another man nearly drowned while looking for clams in the waters off Jefferson Drive in Mastic Beach Saturday, Suffolk County police said.
Bystanders alerted to the young men drowning around 3:40 p.m. rushed into the water but were able to pull only one of them, Gordon Sung, to shore. They couldn't reach the other one, Ivan Vulong, whom the fire department later rescued.
Vulong was in critical condition Saturday at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue, police said. Sung also was treated there, for non-life-threatening injuries.
Investigators believe that tides and unfamiliarity with the area were to blame for the near drownings, said Det. Sgt. John Sumwalt, a supervisor of the Shirley-based Seventh Squad detectives, who is handling the case.
Sung, of Rego Park, and Vulong, of Bayside, both 21, were part of a larger group of about 10 who went out east to clam, fish and hang out. The friends initially went farther east, but a boat they had planned to board was full, and someone suggested the Mastic Beach area, police said.
Sung and Vulong ended up about 150 yards offshore, Sumwalt said.
There are no lifeguards on that section of beach, officials said.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
