A Queens mother mourning her 17-year-old son, who drowned at Rockaway Beach, says she could have saved him — if only she had been there with him that day.
Patrice Thompson’s son Audley Sykes was swimming with his best friend and the friend’s sister when he got caught in a riptide near Beach 83rd St. about 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
“If I was there, I would’ve been able to save him,” Thompson said.
“I brought him there every day. I taught him how to swim. He knew how to swim. He wasn’t a strong swimmer but I taught him how to move around in the water. I didn’t get a chance to teach him how to deal with rip currents and tides.”
Audley Sykes. (GoFundMe)
Audley spontaneously ventured to the beach without his mom Sunday after a birthday party planned for Thompson, who turned 39 the day before, got canceled.
“We will never forget this birthday,” Thompson said. “This is devastating.”
Audley was not breathing when he was pulled from the water by FDNY first responders and lifeguards. Meanwhile, a lifeguard rescued his struggling 18-year-old pal.
“[Audley] was under for 15 minutes. The lifeguards pulled [Audley’s friend] first. He was telling them, ‘Leave me alone. I can get back, go get my friend, get my brother, because he is under the water right now.’” Thompson said. “He is distraught.”
Lifeguards had already left their chairs for the day at 6:00 p.m. but remained at their stations nearby to respond to emergencies until 8 p.m. as part of the city’s heat emergency plan. Swimming is prohibited after 6 p.m. on city beaches.
The rescue effort provoked a massive response including two NYPD helicopters circling low.
“Everyone did the best they can do, in regards to firefighters, lifeguards, policemen,” Thompson said. “They were extremely on top of their game.”
Rockaway Beach near Beach 83rd St. (Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News)
Medics rushed both Audley and his friend to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where the friend was in stable condition, an NYPD spokesperson said. The friend declined comment when reached by the Daily News Tuesday.
Audley was later transferred to Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
“They did the best they could,” said Thompson, who held vigil at his bedside until he died about 11:00 a.m. Monday. “They hit the ceiling with the drugs and then his potassium spiked and his heart failed.”
Audley leaves behind six younger brothers.
“He was the sweetest guy, a bubble of love,” his mother said. “There were so many people who loved him and enjoyed him and I’m glad they got to experience him because he was a sweet, loving guy. He would do anything for anybody.”
Drowning victim Audley Sykes. (Courtesy of Family)
Thompson described her eldest son as an aspiring entrepreneur. He was headed into his senior year at Williamsburg High School For Architecture and Design.
“I was teaching him business management, hunting, shooting. He wanted to learn what I was doing,” said Thompson, who works in construction. “He was learning how to [be a] mechanic from his dad.”
The teen found a passion in playing football for the Rosedale Jets, his local neighborhood team.
“With a heavy heart I want to say R.I.P. to one of my favorite players that I coached over the past 20 years,” Carlos Jackson posted on Facebook. “I’m going to miss you Audley.”
His mother said Audley had a special connection to the sport.
“Football was the only thing he really got into. He loved football. He is very athletic,” she said. “He was running and gunning them down. He was very ambidextrous.”
In his spare time, Audley also enjoyed watching anime.
Thompson named Audley after her brother who was shot to death in Queens as a young man in 2008. Her brother “had the same love and he gave the same love” as her son, she said.
Thompson has now created a GoFundMe to help cover the costs of Audley’s funeral and for grief counseling for herself and her younger sons.
Drowning victim Audley Sykes. (Courtesy of Family)
Thompson said the city should be doing more to prevent drownings, which occur every summer at Rockaway Beach.
“We’re saddened by this tragic loss of life and our hearts go out to the victim’s family and friends,” a Parks Department spokesman said in a statement.
In May, 18-year-old Brandon Figueroa was swept away while swimming with friends at Rockaway Beach near Beach 73rd St. His body was discovered two weeks later, roughly eight miles away near Beach 222nd St. at the tip of Breezy Point.
Swimming was prohibited on city beaches when Figueroa drowned, as lifeguard season had not yet begun.
“There shouldn’t be any reason we are losing people for days and finding them days after,” Thompson said. “We have been going through this for years.”