Man Who Drowned In Lake Ontario Identified

A swimmer pulled unconscious from Lake Ontario has died.

Paraic McKeown, 20, was in Toronto on a working holiday visa. He just was one week away from returning home to his native Ireland.

According to police, McKeown and some friends had camped out overnight on Centre Island. On Tuesday morning, three of them went swimming off a dock on the south side of the island.

“The water is about 30 to 50 feet deep at that side of the pier,” described Staff Sgt. Ron Tapley of the Toronto Police Marine Unit.

“The water’s picking up, it’s still cold, it’s getting a little choppy out there,” he continued.

That may explain why his two friends made it back to shore, but the victim did not.

His friends quickly called for help from a payphone and the Police Marine Unit was on scene shortly after 7:30am.

By then, it was too late.

“The deceased was found in about eight feet of water,” Tapley continued.

Emergency crews began performing CPR as the McKeown was rushed to hospital. He was pronounced dead in hospital. Lifeguard Bruce Hollowell pulled the man out of the water.

“I dove in and pulled him up to the boat. It’s not what you want to see happen in our lakes,” he said. “People tend to underestimate the distance over water and overestimate their ability to make it in.”

His friends said that he was a good swimmer. Tapley said they weren’t sure yet how he died, saying that the young man may have swallowed water and panicked in the lake.

“At the end of the day, it’s an unsupervised beach. The lifeguards weren’t on duty.”

Officers from 52 Division are investigating. The Irish Embassy is also involved.

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