.drowning.

Yesterday, I got a call while shooting a family crabbing (see below). A child had drowned the previous evening in Bradley Beach when he was carried into deep waters by a rip current.

This was a tremendously sad and tough assignment. I hit the streets of this small town, walking with the reporter finding the story. I was really impressed with S-L reporter Maryann Spoto, who tracked down the key players and approached them with such respect and compassion that they were put at ease. I very photographed while she talked with the subjects about what happened, trying to be unobtrusive and respectful. I only shot about 40 frames, most of them were of the little boys picture, because I was having problems with glare on the glass frame.


Sisters Melissa Paris, left, and Vanessa Jerez, aunts of the drowned boy, comfort one another outside the boy's home in Bradley Beach where his mother, Melinda Paris, was in mourning. "Why him?" asked Jerez, 29, of Lawrencville. "He's so young. He had so much life ahead of him."


Trevon Taylor, 8, was playing knee-deep in the surf off Bradley Beach yesterday evening when he was swept away by a suspected rip current. His submerged body was found nearly 150 feet out nearly half an hour after he disappeared.


Family Friend Jacquelynn Destouche was with her own three children and Melinda Paris' two kids when the rip current caught Trevon Taylor and swept him away, making the Bradley Beach boy the Jersey Shore's first drowning victim of the summmer. "I really tried my best to save him," she said. "I feel like it's all my fault."