Man struck by SUV; lost swimmer is presumed dead

An Oceanside man sunbathing in Long Beach on May 26 was run over by a Long Beach Police Department SUV as the officer who was driving the vehicle responded to calls to help a distressed swimmer. 

The incident occurred near Laurelton Boulevard at 12:11 p.m., when the SUV driver -- officer Paul DeMarco, who was patrolling the beach -- was headed away from the shore, toward the boardwalk, when he saw and heard people on the beach calling and waving at him to alert him to a female swimmer in distress by the jetties, according to Detective Lt. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for the Nassau County Police Department, which took over the investigation.

"He looked in their direction and made a sweeping U-turn, and lost sight of the ground in front of him and struck the sunbather," Smith said.

Police said that DeMarco -- who has been on the Long Beach force for 27 years -- made a visual check in all directions before turning his Dodge Durango, but did not see Marshall Starkman, 43, an Oceanside man on a low-lying lounge chair. Starkman was struck by the right tires of the SUV and sustained fractures to his neck and ribs. 

"My understanding is that the officer -- who is a very seasoned, well-respected police officer -- was on the beach patrolling and he had stopped to speak with someone," City Manager Charles Theofan said. "He was called away to respond and, unfortunately, he was making a very sharp right to go back east and did not see this gentleman. He didn't even realize it until he heard people yelling and of course stopped."

Starkman was transported by helicopter to Nassau University Medical Center, where he was listed in serious but stable condition. Theofan said that he may have suffered a broken spine. An NUMC spokesperson said that the family declined to comment, and that there was no updated information about his condition on May 27, as the Herald went to press. 

Neighbors described Starkman as a "clean cut," friendly man who shares a home on Park Avenue with his mother. "I think they're lovely people and lovely neighbors," said Beverly Seidman, who lives on Park Avenue. "As soon as I heard about it, I ran across the street, and I don't have to tell you how awful [his mother] feels. We're all shaken and very upset."

Smith said that when Demarco responded to the calls, he was not in emergency mode, meaning he did not have his flashing lights and siren on. But, Smith added, after police interviewed witnesses on the beach as well as DeMarco and Starkman, the incident was deemed an accident. 

_"You look to see if there was any criminality just to cover all your bases, but it doesn't look as if the officer did anything wrong other than not see this bather, so there was no criminal negligence or recklessness," Smith said.

The accident occurred on a particularly busy off-season day in Long Beach, on which temperatures climbed near 90 degrees and a number of swimmers were overwhelmed by the rough ocean water. "[The officer] had gotten a call for one of the water rescues, which is why he was pulling away quickly," Theofan said. "There is clearly nothing here to indicate more than a tragic accident."

He said that similar incidents have happened in the past. "We have had people in the past that have been run over by our garbage trucks, and some got no injuries at all because they just get pressed way into the sand," Theofan said. 

Paul Gillespie, the chief of Long Beach lifeguards, recalled that the last time someone was hit and killed by a vehicle on the beach was 15 to 20 years ago, when a bulldozer ran over a man on a West End beach.

Search and rescue 

A 19-year-old male swimmer from Brooklyn went missing off the beach at Edwards Boulevard at about 1:50 p.m. the same day, according to Long Beach Fire Commissioner Scott Kemins. Kemins said that the man's friends were rescued, but they had not recovered the victim's body.

"Three of them got in trouble and two of them were rescued, and the other, unfortunately, was not," Kemins said.

One of the young man's friends told Kemins that he last saw him floating face-down in the water near a jetty. After more than 90 minutes of searching, emergency personnel switched to recovery protocol and would continue to monitor the ocean with helicopters and boats, Kemins said.

More than a dozen swimmers were pulled from the ocean on May 26, just three days before the lifeguards began working on the holiday weekend. Gillespie said that lifeguards were getting the beach ready. "We loaded the trucks with everything, just in case, and it worked because we did save about 15 people," Gillespie said. "Thank God we were there, because you would have had 15 drownings." 

Gillespie said that surfers brought a number of distressed swimmers in on their boards. 

"The problem is, you get warm weather, people out of college, high school kids skipping school and the water is bad -- it's a recipe for a nightmare," Kemins said, adding that some of those who were rescued had abrasions from hitting the jetties, or had swallowed water. A few had to be transported to the Long Beach Medical Center, but the majority received medical attention at the beach. 

Kemins said that every rescue call but one involved teenagers or young adults from New York City. "Long Beach kids know the water, they respect it, they know not to go in," he said. "Always it's the out-of-towners from Queens or Brooklyn. No matter how many signs you put up and no matter how many times you warn them, they don't understand it."

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext.