Boy who drowned at Grand Isle identified as Hammond teen

GRAND ISLE, La. (AP) - Police say a Hammond teen drowned at Grand Isle on Saturday, with two other family members hospitalized after getting caught in strong currents.

The Jefferson Parish coroner tells local news outlets that the drowning victim was 17-year-old Oscar Gustavo Rivera Aguilar

Grand Isle Police Chief Laine Landry says police were called Sunday evening to waters near the Andy P. Valence Memorial Bridge. There, they searched for more than an hour before finding Aguilar’s body, Landry said. He said a 15-year-old boy and a 47-year-old woman who were relatives of the deceased teen were rescued. The second teen was flown by helicopter to a hospital in New Orleans while the woman was hospitalized closer to Grand Isle.

Landry tells The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate that Aguilar and his relatives were all part of a large family that traveled down for the Memorial Day weekend to fish and swim.

“On a normal day it’s safe to swim but conditions in the last few days have been conducive to strong undertows and rip currents, with strong southerly winds and two-foot tides,” Landry said.