Neptune Beach drowning victim who helped family out of rip current was Ukrainian refugee
A Ukrainian family is sharing more details about Mykhailo Myroshnychenko, a 19-year-old man who drowned helping a family out of a rip current off Neptune Beach, according to Times-Union news partner First Coast News.
“He always was laughing and a funny guy really," said his brother Victor Myroshnychenko, who was with them at the beach with another brother and friend Tuesday night.
The three Ukraine natives had just moved to Jacksonville from a refugee camp in Norway, where they lived after fleeing from war, the first in a family of seven to make the trip.
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Police say he went into the water around 8 p.m. trying to help an adult and two children in distress.
“I turned to my brother, can you see Mykhailo? He said no, we just went to try to find him, but we can’t," Myroshnychenko said.
The 35-year-old father whom he helped said the young man pushed his daughter toward him so he could grab her, and then the father saw him on his back floating in the water, according to the police report. Once he got back to the shore with his daughter, he could no longer see Myroshnychenko and called 911.
The Florida Times-Union reached out to the father, be he didn't wish to comment.
The brothers, through an interpreter, told police he was not a very strong swimmer and they didn't see him go under the water, according to the incident report. They also checked back at the vehicle to see if maybe he was there.
A member of the Neptune Beach Police Department found his body about 2:30 a.m. the next morning close to shore near 19th Street in Atlantic Beach, according to police.
“So terrible because we must today call to our parents in Norway and we have small brothers and sisters in Norway," Victor Myroshnychenko said.
Their family fled from war in Ukraine and are now living in a refugee camp in Norway waiting to come to the U.S. and had to hear over the phone that Mykhailo died a week before his 20th birthday. Now instead of a birthday party, the brothers are planning a funeral.
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“And we bought a present for him, but we can’t gift him his present now," his brother said. "It’s really so terrible for us."
The brothers are working with a local Ukrainian church, but the community can also help through a GoFundMe set up for their family.
He becomes the second 19-year-old who drowned at the Beaches in less than two weeks. About 7:30 p.m. May 28, Curtis A Newkirk Jr. went missing while swimming with a group of people at Jacksonville Beach. A paddleboarder found his body three days later off Beach Proper North, according to Jacksonville Beach police.
Times-Union Metro Editor Scott Butler contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida drowning victim from Ukraine rescued family from rip current
