From the New York Times:
Six teenagers drowned in a river in northern Louisiana on Monday evening when they waded over a drop-off into much deeper water.
The teenagers, ages 13 to 18, belonged to two families that had come to a sandy bank along the Red River in Shreveport, said the city’s assistant fire chief, Fred Sanders. The victims included three siblings from the Warner family — Takeitha, 13, and her brothers JaMarcus, 14, and JaTavious, 17 — and three brothers from the Stewart family — Litrelle, 18, LaDairus, 17, and Latevin, 15.
Only the Warner’s cousin, D.J. Warner, 15, the first to scream for help, was rescued.
“I don’t think that I will ever forget Aug. 2, 2010, for as long as I live,” Shreveport’s mayor, Cedric Glover, told reporters on Monday night.
The two families had come to the area for a cook-out, and the teenagers waded out into the shallows, about 10 feet from the bank, said Cindy Chadwick, a public information officer for the Caddo Parish sheriff’s department. About 10 minutes later, the teenagers began coming back to shore when one boy slipped on the slick river bed and fell into deep water.
“All of sudden, there was nothing underneath him,” Ms. Chadwick said.
The teenagers went over to help, but none knew how to swim, and neither did the other family members on the bank. There was one life jacket on hand, which they threw into the river.
“Family members saw them go in and screamed for help,” Mr. Sanders said. “There were some other citizens along the beach area that came to the rescue.”
The fire department was called around 6:30 pm, Mr. Sanders said. Dive teams came shortly afterward to recover the bodies of the victims, a search that took hours.
The last body was found around 10 p.m.
“I certainly hope I never see anything like this again in my career,” Fire Chief Brian Crawford of Shreveport said Monday night.
Mr. Sanders described the area as being surrounded by vegetation, though people had cut narrow paths through it with four-wheelers and, with a sandy beach, it had become a popular site for picnics.
