Jeffery L Williams Obituary, Death; – The body recovered from the waters of Lake Erie near the pier at Edgewater Park in Cleveland on Tuesday has been identified. United States Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Mary Wysong said they were called around 3:50 p.m. on Aug. 19 for the body.

The Cleveland Fire Department, the Cleveland MetroParks Police, and the U.S Coast Guard all responded to the scene. Cleveland Fire’s Marine 21 recovered the body; the USCG boat couldn’t navigate safely into the shallow waters where the body was found.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner identified the victim as 64-year-old Jeffery L. Williams of Cleveland. The medical examiner also confirmed that Williams was the older man the Cleveland Division of Fire said reportedly fell off of the Edgewater Pier around 7:40 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17.

Williams was just one of three people who presumably drowned off the Northeast Ohio shores in Lake Erie on Sunday. Earlier Sunday afternoon at Huntington Beach in Bay Village, two brothers went missing in the water around 5:30 p.m. They were identified as 19-year-old Trent Sanchez and 22-year-old Austin Labbe from the Akron area.

Metroparks Police Chief Kelly Stillman said rescue crews responded to Huntington Beach for two people in the water who had gone for a swim. First responders tried to perform a rescue, but the water conditions were too bad to conduct a major dive operation.

The police said this shifted into a recovery mission. Another body was pulled from Lake Erie less than a day after Williams’ was. That body was found off the shores of Avon Lake, though the victim has yet to be identified.

The National Weather Service issued alerts earlier Sunday, warning beachgoers of rip currents that can pose a risk to swimmers. 19 First Alert Chief Meteorologist Jason Nicholas explains how dangerous rip currents can be.

“Very dangerous,” Jason says. ”These are things that we know are coming it’s so important to know when to stay out of the water and to listen to those warnings because as you can see rip currents can be really tough to deal with when you’re out in the lake.” Jason also explains what to do if you get stuck in a rip current.

“It’s easy to say don’t panic, but a lot of times people do panic,” Jason says. “The thing with rip currents is they won’t take you under all they do is they push you back or pull you back out into the lake, so the best idea is try not to panic and instead of trying to swim back to shore swim parallel to the beach.”

Lifeguards are done for the season on Aug. 10, so there were no lifeguards on duty, and because of that, there were no warning flags flying as well.