NYPD: Swimmer off Rockaway Beach missing since Friday night
July 26, 2025, 11:43 a.m.
Officials said a 22-year-old man was seen swimming just after 6 p.m.
A swimmer went missing off Rockaway Beach Friday evening.
NYPD divers and aviation search teams have been searching for a young man who went missing while swimming off Rockaway Beach Friday night, police said.
Just after 6 p.m., as intense thunderstorms struck the greater metro area, police said they responded to 911 calls about a 22-year-old last seen swimming around Beach 20th Street and Seagirt Avenue.
The initial search by NYPD’s Harbor, Scuba and Aviation Units was unsuccessful and the man remained missing as of Saturday morning. Police say they plan to resume canvassing efforts throughout the day.
Kaitlin Krause, founder of the nonprofit Rising Tide Effect, which advocates for water safety, was setting up a swim safety instruction for the neighborhood, just steps from where the swimmer vanished.
“The irony is, I was there to give a water safety talk. I was literally setting up my handouts when I saw the firetrucks charging down the boardwalk," she said Saturday.
Since then, she said the family of the young swimmer has been reaching out to her for updates. Krause said he was a recent immigrant from Niger, and had just taken his second day off from work in two years when he drowned.
Police have not confirmed any information about the swimmer's identity while the search is still underway.
"All the locals know that’s a treacherous spot,” Krause said. "At the top it looks calm but under its moving."
She said the lifeguards and other first responders raced into the ocean, but she knows just how quickly someone can drown.
Watch: Lifeguards perform a "grid search" after a swimmer went missing off Rockaway Beach Friday. (Video courtesy of Kaitlin Krause)
"It literally feels like time is set on fire and you're burning it all up, because this kid has no oxygen," she said.
City lifeguards have conducted 126 beach rescues so far this summer, according to NYC Parks.
If the swimmer is not found, he will become the second to drown in the area during this summer season. A surfer also drowned this year in April.
At this time last year, at least six people had drowned at city beaches according to city officials.
This story has been updated with a witness account.
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