Teen drowns off Newport Pier

Andrew Glazer & Jasmine Lee

NEWPORT BEACH -- The body of a Santa Ana teen who was caught and pulled

out to sea by a powerful rip current washed ashore near the Newport Pier

on Thursday after rescue workers searched the surrounding waters for

nearly two hours.

Armando Roman Briseno, a 17-year-old Santa Ana Valley High School student

and member of the school’s varsity baseball team, was pronounced dead on

the scene. He had been swimming along the surf line with two friends,

both of whom made it to shore safely.

The two survivors, both teenage boys from Santa Ana, were exhausted and

had nearly drowned themselves, police said.

Authorities were notified at about 2:30 p.m. that there was a missing

swimmer off the 28th Street jetty. Several dive teams, a helicopter,

paddle boarders and an Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol boat were

deployed to search for Briseno.

His body washed ashore a few blocks away, at 22nd Street.

A bodyboarder, Dante Millon of Riverside, was the first to spot the body

in ankle-deep water.

“He wasn’t coming up,” Millon said. “I looked around and then remembered

they were looking for somebody. I reached in and pulled him up and called

for help. Really quickly, a man came running and rescuers swarmed around

him.”

Paramedics attempted to resuscitate Briseno, but he was pronounced dead

at 4:30 p.m. Rescue workers lay a yellow plastic tarp over his body as

onlookers mourned the tragedy.

More than 100 people stood by watching, some holding hands and hugging.

It is the first drowning death in the city this year, said Newport Beach

Police Sgt. Mike McDermott.

Except for the rip currents, conditions at the beach were not extremely

dangerous, he said. However, when the weather begins to warm up, many

swimmers mistakenly believe the water temperature also rises. But during

the spring and early summer, the ocean is usually between 50 and 60

degrees.

“It’s colder than it looks,” McDermott said. “And when it’s cold, it

exhausts [swimmers] faster.”