16-year-old boy pulled from lake in Amesbury dies

A 16-year-old boy pulled from Lake Gardner in Amesbury on Sunday has died, the fifth drowning in Massachusetts since Friday.

The teenager, whom police did not identify, was pulled from the lake without a pulse around 4:16 p.m., 25 minutes after police received a report of a drowning, officials said.

Paramedics and emergency room staff were able to regain a pulse; he was taken to Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport and then flown to a Boston hospital. Police learned shortly after midnight that he had died, officials said.

“It’s tragic to have something like this happen, and my thoughts are with the family and friends of the young man,” Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove said in a statement. “Our chiefs confirmed that a summertime water rescue hasn’t happened at Lake Gardner Beach in decades, though they are trained for them. I want to thank our police and fire departments for everything they did to try and save the boy. This is not the outcome we wanted, but they deserve a lot of credit for going above and beyond in the call of duty. Officer Ronnie Guilmette put his own life in danger to search for the boy and didn’t think twice about it. Thank you to both teams for your efforts.”

Guilmette was the first officer to jump in the water. The boy was in Massachusetts visiting his uncle, who lives in Lynn, officials said. Police said the gates to Lake Gardner would be closed for a few days.

A number of drownings have occurred in recent days. On Friday, Worcester police Officer Enmanuel Familia drowned in a pond in the city’s largest park while trying to save a 14-year-old boy, Troy Love, who also died. On Saturday, an unidentified man drowned at White Island Pond in Plymouth, according to the Plymouth Fire Department.

Early Sunday morning, a 17-year-old boy was pulled from an in-ground pool during a graduation party in Dedham and was hospitalized in serious condition, police said.

On Sunday afternoon, Elissandro Silva, 19, died after he was pulled from the water at Mound Street Beach in Quincy, police said.

On Monday, Bill McDonough said he was on the beach when he saw Silva go into the water to retrieve a soccer ball. He was sitting about 150 feet away when he saw the teenager waving towards the shore. He said there were “people in the water around this kid,” leading him to wonder how he drowned.

The beach is “right near a channel,” McDonough said, and the teenager likely “went off the edge and panicked.”

Silva’s mother was “running up and down the beach” as people searched for the teenager, McDonough said. Police officers ran into the water in their uniforms and 20 to 30 people were assisting in the search.

McDonough jumped in the water to try to rescue Silva but a day later wondered if he could’ve done anything more. “It’s just one of those crazy things you can’t explain,” he said.

“It was pretty tough when they pulled him out of the water,” he continued. “It’s a pretty traumatic day for a bunch of people out here . . . it’s just sad, it’s really sad.”