DATE: Saturday, June 21, 1997               TAG: 9706210328

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   55 lines

BOY DIES IN HOSPITAL AFTER RESCUE IN CREEK

A Park View teenager died in Maryview Medical Center Friday morning, less than 24 hours after residents and emergency workers had fought to save him.

Melvin A. Brown, 15, had been pulled from Scotts Creek, where he had been crabbing with a friend near the Spratley Street causeway late Thursday afternoon. He apparently waded out into a drop-off and couldn't fight the current. When residents first heard a friend of Brown yelling, they thought the youngsters were playing around, said Sue Landerman, who lives on the creek.

By the time she got there, she said, a neighbor who is a retired firefighter had pulled Brown from the water. But, she said, the neighbor made several dives before he found Brown.

She estimates the teenager had been under water for as long as 20 minutes.

``The tide was coming in, and you don't realize how strong it is in that little creek,'' she said. ``But the creek is deep there where the boats go out, and it's very mucky. I think when they step in that . . . it's like quick sand. I think they panic.''

Landerman had seen Brown and his friends around the neighborhood and recognized his friend, standing there, looking wet like he, too, had tried to save Brown.

``He was really stunned,'' she said. ``He was standing there just looking at the water, and I put my arm around him and said, `That's your buddy down there, isn't it?'

``I'm sure he was just absolutely scared to death.''

Landerman had talked to Brown a couple of times.

``One day I had a big pitcher of lemonade, and he said, `Boy, that lemonade looks good,' '' she recalled.

She didn't have any glasses, but he and his friends cupped their hands so she could pour them a drink.

Signs at the causeway say ``No crabbing or loitering,'' but Landerman said neighbors had seen youths in the area a lot.

Brown lived within walking distance, in the first block of Linden Avenue.

His mother, Juliet Brown, described her son as a lively teenager who loved computers and sports. He was the youngest of her three sons, she said.

He was going to Wilson High School this year and planned to play football, she said.

A family member said a Wilson coach had called Thursday to talk to him and learned that he was in the hospital. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Melvin A. Brown

Graphic

Map: Area Shown

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT DROWNING FATALITY JUVENILE

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