Fire Island drowning victim Ishmoile Mohammed's mother says beachgoers rallied to help family

As a Wyandanch mother on Tuesday grieved the death of her son, who drowned this past weekend off Fire Island, she praised the many beachgoers who came to her family's aid that day.

Anita Delpin Mohammed, 79, said her 59-year-old son, Ishmoile Mohammed, was swimming Saturday when his nephew ran from the water, struggling to catch his breath, “Saying, ‘Uncle Mo, Uncle Mo, Uncle Mo drowned.’ ”

That’s when fellow beachgoers snapped into action, the elder Mohammed said. “Everyone asked, ‘What do you need? I have a boat. Where do you need to go?’ ”

Several people offered to watch a relative's child while a handful of boaters took others out to look for her son, she said. One person helped pack up their belongings amid the chaos.

“They all helped, but the boaters helped the most,” she said.

Eventually, lifeguards pulled her son’s body from the water at 2:45 p.m., police said, about a half-mile away from where he had been swimming.

The mother said she watched the helicopter land on the beach. “I got a bad feeling because it didn’t take off right away,” she said.

The helicopter airlifted him to Bay Shore’s South Shore University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to Suffolk County police.

Mohammed was the eldest of four. His two brothers have died.

He left behind a son and two daughters, one of whom is pregnant. “He won’t see his first grandchild,” his mother told Newsday on Tuesday. One of his daughters hasn’t let go of his beach towel since Saturday, she said.

“The people there that day, God bless them,” Mohammed continued. “They were all helping hands.”

Mohammed described her son as an “impeccably dressed ... exceptional man.”

Ishmoile Mohammed attended Wyandanch Memorial High School where his mother taught. After he graduated, Mohammed joined the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps. He later signed up for a Bible group at Dowling College in Oakdale. “He’s always been in that [religious] frame of mind,” his mother said.

From 1985 to 1997, Mohammed served in the U.S. Army, working in communications during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Iraq. He also completed a second tour in Kuwait and served in Bosnia and Kosovo, according to an interview he gave about 15 years ago to an upstate newspaper.

He then joined the New York Army National Guard as a recruiter and citizen soldier.

“To me, it’s the best of both worlds,” Mohammed said in the interview. “I like the sense of honor, pride and believing in what you stand for.”

After retiring he moved to South Carolina in 2018 in search of a different lifestyle, his mother said. After Saturday’s tragedy, she warned Long Islanders to be careful when swimming in the ocean: “We have no control. … It happened so quickly. … Just be watchful. Be aware.”

Mohammed will be buried at Calverton National Cemetery.