Body Of Teen Swept Away In Riptide Found At Rockaway Beach: NYPD

ROCKAWAY, QUEENS -- Police have found the body of a 17-year-old boy who was reportedly swept out to sea in a riptide while swimming at Rockaway Beach this weekend.

A lifeless body was found with no obvious signs of trauma along the shore near Beach 97th Street on Tuesday morning, an NYPD spokesman said. Authorities later identified the corpse as Lamine Sarr.

The teen was last seen swimming in choppy waters with two friends at Beach 58th Street on Saturday afternoon, less than a mile and a half from his Far Rockaway home, police said.

The boys' longtime friend Ezra Cummings, 17, told the New York Post Sarr didn't know how to swim, and the teens hadn't planned to go further than waist-deep into the waters.

"They were just gonna walk into the water," he told the newspaper.

But the dip turned deadly when the teens realized they couldn't feel their feet touching the ground in the cold water and looked back to find Sarr was nowhere in sight, Cummings told the tabloid.

Sarr was first reported missing at approximately 5 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. NYPD and FDNY divers combed the waters for about an hour and a half before strong rip currents thwarted their search. It resumed Sunday and continued until NYPD Harbor units found Sarr's body at about 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

Friends and family gathered to honor Sarr on Monday at the Channel View School for Research in Rockaway Park, where he was a high school senior.

"He was an amazing person," one friend told NY1 through tears. "He didn't deserve this."

Lead photo of Rockaway Beach by Bryan Thomas/Getty Images