Man drowns off Dauphin Island beach

DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. (WALA) - Police on Dauphin Island have confirmed the first drowning of the Labor Day weekend.

Kim Reynolds of Mobile said the second day of her family vacation on Dauphin Island turned sour around noon Saturday.

That's when she discovered someone in trouble in the water about 200 feet offshore.

"I was sitting on my deck reading a book, and heard somebody yelling for help, and I looked out, and this man was on a raft," Reynolds said.

According to Reynolds the man and two of his friends were staying in the vacation rental next door on Beinville Boulevard on the west end of Dauphin Island.

Reynolds said the man was from China. He was in the U.S. on business, but was spending a few vacation days on the island before returning home.

The tide, the waves and the weather couldn't have been better for swimming, according to officials, but witnesses said the man who drowned couldn't swim.

"They didn't speak any English and he went out on a raft. His two friends were in the house. They didn't even know he had gone out, I don't think," Reynolds said.

Other vacationers pulled the man from the water and tried to save him, but Reynolds said there was a lot of frustration over the time it took emergency crews to arrive, and what happened when they finally did show up.

"They worked on him for a long time. The police finally got here, the paramedics finally got here, I would say 40 to 45 minutes later. And they had called in Life Flight, and at that point they announced him dead," she said.

Dauphin Island police have not released the man's name.