VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — The body pulled out of the ocean near 14th Street at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Monday evening has been identified as one of the two missing swimmers from Saturday night, according to the Virginia Beach Police Department (VBPD).
Around 7:30 p.m., VBFD crews responded to a report of a body floating in water near 14th Street, and when crews arrived, they were able to visually spot the body, “which appeared to be dead,” a fire department spokesperson said.
Four VBFD rescue swimmers pulled the body from the surf at 8:07 p.m. between 13th and 14th streets, and the fire department spokesperson said the body was turned over to the Virginia Beach Police Department for further processing.
Tuesday morning, VBPD posted to X, confirmed the body as 22-year-old Sergio Olcot Ajbal of Chesapeake.
Police also stated they recovered another body from the water shortly before 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday, and are working to confirm the identity of the individual.
Earlier in the day, Virginia Beach Fire Rescue Boat #12 could be seen performing a grid search in the ocean off 16th and 17th streets, searching for two 22-year-old men who went in the ocean around 8:30 p.m. Saturday — and never came out.
Tom Gill, chief of Virginia Beach Lifesaving Services, said you just cannot be in the ocean at night.
“Nobody should be swimming at night, whether it’s a beautiful evening at the beach, or a dangerous evenings at the beach,” Gill said. “Never go in the water at night because you never know what is in there.”
The fire rescue boat looking for the Saturday night swimmers responded to another swimmer in distress Monday morning.
“The victim was about 50 yards offshore, pulled out by current, and lifeguards got to him quick and pulled him to shore,” Gill said.
But there was an additional problem — two good Samaritans jumped in to help the victim, and got stuck themselves.
“One of those on Fire Rescue got off the boat because they were out there already,” Gill said, “and thought he saw someone go under, and that initiated [a] Code X response,” which alerts that there’s a “swimmer under water.”
It turns out the swimmers found themselves to shore a block-and-a-half down the Oceanfront. They created frantic moments until they were found.
Gill, asked whether the Good Samaritans have gone in the water, paused before saying “no,” even though their instinct was to do the right thing.
“Yes, but we’ve been trained to do it,” Gill said. “We have the equipment to do it.”
A kayaker, Matt from New Jersey, was out on the rough seas with no floatation device and turned his kayak over. He got a visit from Gill, who told him it’s probably better if he gets out of the water.
“Yea, they saw me mess up,” the man said. “Said let’s get the kid out of here, you know. They said it was too rough.”
Gill said this about Good Samaritans.
“To put yourself in position to save someone else,” Gill said, “we see it time and time again, those bystanders, those good Samaritans sometimes become the fatalities.”