High School Indian Student Drowns in US While Trying to Retrieve Football From Pond

He was in the final year of high school and had been set to study criminal justice at a local university.

New York: On the heels of a tragic incident where two Indian students lost their lives in Illinois, the media has reported that an 18-year-old Indian student died while trying to retrieve a football that had fallen into a freezing pond in New Jersey.

The victim has been identified as Kerala-born Clinten Ajit. His body was pulled from the depths of the pond in New Milford on Friday night by an emergency service diver, the Daily Voice reported.

He “was apparently doing a good deed” when he went into the pond at about 7 p.m. to get the ball, said the news outlet.

“Some kids accidentally kicked a soccer ball in the water and (he) said he would get it for them. He didn’t know how to swim and never came back up,” said an emergency service worker as quoted by the Daily Voice.

“There’s no words that can describe the pain that this family is going through right now. Our hearts are broken. Our town will be praying for (them) tonight,” said New Milford Mayor Michael Putrino.

According to a Gofundme fundraiser set up for his family, Ajit was born in Niranam, Kerala, and immigrated to the US in 2012.

He was in the final year of high school and had been set to study criminal justice at a local university.

On Friday evening, the temperatures were down to about 12 degrees Celsius in New Milford, which is about 35 km from New York City.

Ten-year-old Sam Rueda, who witnessed the tragedy told the CBS2 New York TV, “The water went up to his waist, then it went up to his neck, then he had his whole, full body in the water.”

(With agency inputs)