NEW YORK (WPIX) – A 13-year-old boy has died after being hospitalized after reports of a lightning strike Thursday afternoon at Orchard Beach in the Bronx borough of New York City, police said Friday.
The boy was among seven people sent to the hospital after a reported lightning strike at the beach, authorities said.
The boy was later identified as Carlos Ramos of the Bronx.
The teen’s parents; two boys, ages 5 and 14; and two girls, ages 12 and 13; were also injured.
The extent of their injuries was not immediately known. The relation between Ramos and the other children was not immediately disclosed.
Allen Alvarado is a friend of the family and said that he’d been with Carlos the evening before, on Wednesday.
“My heart just hit the floor,” he said, after learning that the teen had died. “I can’t believe it. I cannot believe it at all.”
Eboni Williams is also a family friend. She lives in the family’s building, on East 168th St., in the Mt. Eden section of the Bronx. She described Ramos as a “good kid.”
“[He] didn’t bother nobody, he’d go to school,” Williams recalled. “He was a smart kid.”
Many people in the apartment building, which has more than 120 units, know the family and knew their son.
Jose Norales works in the building.
“Always he said ‘Good morning, good afternoon,’ always,” Norales said.
The FDNY said calls came in around 5:20 p.m for the lightning strike.
While the lightning strike could not be confirmed by authorities, several beachgoers said they witnessed the lightning strike as dark storm clouds rolled in.
A weather map shows lightning data from radar at the time of the incident.
A lightning strike can hit anywhere within 10 miles of a thunderstorm.
Watch WPIX’s original report on the now-deadly lightning strike:
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