THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608070567
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BROWN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 43 lines
A 9-year-old boy drowned Tuesday afternoon in East Ocean View after he tried to float on a piece of cushion and fell into Little Creek, police spokesman Larry Hill said.
The boy was identified as Dante Lancaster of the 9500 block of 21st Bay St.
The accident happened just after 1:30 p.m. in the 4100 block of Pretty Lake Ave. near the foot of 22nd Bay Street. Hill said the boy apparently went with three friends to the shore, where he apparently tried to float out onto the water on a cushion, fashioned into a makeshift raft. He fell from the cushion about 40 feet from shore, Hill said.
``The youngster went into the water and was never seen,'' Hill said.
The water was 5 to 6 feet deep where he fell, but there is a sharp drop just beyond that point, Hill said. Rescuers located his body at 2:40 p.m.
Lancaster's was the first reported drowning in Norfolk this year, but there have been several others across Hampton Roads since May.
On July 6, a 3-year-old girl drowned in a pool during a family gathering in the 700 block of Colony Manor Road in Chesapeake. The child had fallen into a 4-foot above-ground pool behind a home.
On June 23, also in Chesapeake, James Johnson, 31, drowned in an apartment-complex swimming pool in the 3100 block of Fairview St.
On June 17, 10-year-old Kenneth M. Santiago, of the 1800 block of Pittsburg Landing, drowned in a borrow pit near his house in the Alexandria section of the city.
On June 14, Tiffany Lynnette Williams, 14, drowned after falling out of a boat on an outing with friends. Williams, of the Crestwood section of Chesapeake, was recovered from a pond in the Plantation Lakes section of the city.
On May 12, Suffolk police divers found the body of Alvin J. Richardson, 15, in Lake Meade after investigating an accidental drowning. Richardson lived in the 100 block of North Broad Street, about six blocks from the accident site. ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON\The Virginian-Pilot
Members of Norfolk's Rescue Dive and Recovery Unit search the water
off East Ocean View for the body of Dante Lancaster.
KEYWORDS: DROWNING ACCIDENT by CNB