ALAMEDA, Calif. -- The family of a man who drowned in Alameda last Memorial Day weekend as police and firefighters stood on shore have sued the city and Alameda County, claiming officials were negligent for not rescuing the man.
A distraught and fully clothed Raymond Zack, 52, waded 150 yards into the water at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach on May 30, 2011, shortly after 11 a.m. Police and firefighters who responded did not enter the water to try to rescue him.
Zack's sister and brother, Bernice Jolliff and Robert Zack, said in their lawsuit that authorities should have helped their brother, who waded into the 54-degree water in a suicide attempt.
After his death, firefighters said they did not enter the water because they were not certified in land-water rescue and did not have a rescue boat that could maneuver in the shallow waters. Police said they did not go in because Zack was possibly violent. Both the rescue boat and the certification have been reinstated.
The complaint alleges failure by county dispatchers to contact the proper agencies and a failure by officials to determine whether a U.S. Coast Guard boat should be called to enter the shallow waters. A female swimmer finally went into the water and pulled Zack's floating body from the bay. He was pronounced dead at Alameda Hospital.
City and county officials could not be reached for comment late Friday. The suit, filed Friday in Alameda County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages.
Copyright 2012 - The Oakland Tribune, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
