Sir Audley Sykes was caught in a rip current with his best friend. His mother says that when lifeguards reached them, he urged them to rescue his friend first.<\/p>\n
Sir Audley Sykes\u2019 final moments were marked by the same quality his mother says defined him throughout his 17 years: putting the people he loved before himself.<\/p>\n
Sykes drowned Sunday evening after he and his best friend were caught in a rip current at Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York. According to\u00a0ABC News<\/a>\u00a0and local outlet\u00a0QNS<\/a>, the teenagers were struggling in the water near Beach 84th Street when lifeguards responded.<\/p>\n Sykes\u2019 mother, Patrice Thompson, told ABC News that her son made a heartbreaking request when a lifeguard reached his friend.<\/p>\n \u201cHis best friend said he got tired and when he got tired \u2014 that\u2019s when the lifeguard got to him,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cHe told the lifeguard to go to his friend and my son said, \u2018No, go and pull my best friend out of the water.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Both teenagers were pulled from the water, but only Sykes died.<\/p>\n For Thompson, that final act was devastating but also a reflection of the son she knew.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would save someone else before he thought about himself and that\u2019s the thing I appreciated about him the most,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The incident happened around 7:30 p.m., after official swimming hours had ended. Lifeguards had reportedly remained nearby, staying late on particularly hot days at the city\u2019s direction, according to ABC News.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sykes was the first person to drown at a New York City beach this summer.<\/p>\n Now, his mother is left holding onto memories of her son, including the football player she proudly watched take the field and the teenager who had just given her a birthday gift.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw my baby on a stretcher, unresponsive, his heart beating on a machine,\u201d Thompson told ABC News.\u00a0<\/p>\n For a mother grieving the loss of her child, Sykes\u2019 final act offers both heartbreak and a testament to the kind of young man he was: even in a moment of profound danger, he was thinking about his friend first.<\/p>\n