Lifeguard directed 18-year-old into rip current, California lawsuit says. He drowned

A lifeguard on a jet ski directed an 18-year-old swimmer toward a rip current, where he was pulled under the water and drowned, a California lawsuit says.

Woodlain Zachee Prudhomme, 18, was swimming with a friend at Mission Beach, a public beach in San Diego, on June 14, according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in San Diego County on May 3.

Lifeguards and other city employees were aware of a rip current in the vicinity of a lifeguard tower that day but “took no measures” to warn the public about it, the lawsuit says.

While he was in the water, a lifeguard on a jet ski approached Prudhomme and told him to swim toward the lifeguard tower, the lawsuit says. Prudhomme “obeyed the lifeguard’s instruction” and “swam straight into the dangerous rip current,” the complaint says.

The current pulled him out into the ocean, and he “disappeared beneath the waves and drowned,” according to the complaint. Spokespeople for the City of San Diego did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

Employees with the city knew “or reasonably should have known” about the rip current and failed to warn the public, the complaint says.

Had Prudhomme been warned, he “would not have entered the water in that area, if at all,” the complaint says.

Domenic Martini, a lawyer for Prudhomme’s parents, told McClatchy News that Prudhomme’s body was never confirmed found. Though police told his parents remains had been found, the remains have not been positively identified by officials as of May 10, Martini said.

“They’re still grieving,” he said of the family.

Martini said Prudhomme was the “light of the family’s life.”

“He was a kid with a bright future,” he said. “He was a basketball player. He was 18 years old. He looked forward to being a young adult and really starting that next chapter after high school.”

Martini called the actions of lifeguards that day “well below the standard of care.”

The lawsuit is seeking an unspecified amount of damages, including funeral expenses as well as Prudhomme’s pain and suffering before his death.

Martini said the family also hopes to prevent such an incident from ever occurring again.

This story was originally published May 10, 2023 at 6:13 PM with the headline "Lifeguard directed 18-year-old into rip current, California lawsuit says. He drowned."