By Kevin Fagan
The San Francisco Chronicle
ALAMEDA, Calif. — An independent review of the Memorial Day death of an apparently suicidal man at Alameda’s Crown Beach rebukes the city for not having a water rescue crew at the time, and urges better coordination between the island city’s police and fire agencies when handling offshore emergencies.
The 67-page review, released by the city Thursday, was conducted by former state Fire Marshal Ruben Grijalva. The Alameda City Council will consider its recommendations at a special meeting Oct. 11.
The report lays out 14 recommendations and details missteps on the day 52-year-old Raymond Zack stood in the water off Crown Beach for 31 minutes before succumbing to hypothermia. City Manager John Russo, who assumed his job shortly after the death, said the city would take the recommendations seriously.
“No excuses,” he said. “It was not Alameda’s finest hour.”
Russo added, “Changes have already come, and more will come ... and then we’re going to close the book on this and it’s not going to happen again. We will be able to rescue people.”
Zack’s death drew international outrage because firefighters and police did not go into the water to save him. Instead, after Zack was unconscious, a bystander waded out to the neck-deep water where he had been standing and carried him to shore.
Alameda’s emergency responders couldn’t go into the water, officials later said, because they weren’t trained in water rescue and they believed Zack might become violent.
The Fire Department’s water rescue unit, which had been eliminated amid budgetary cutbacks, has been restarted - addressing one of the main recommendations of Grijalva’s report. On Aug. 8 two firefighter swimmers using their boat rescued a kite surfer in the waters off Shoreline Drive.
Russo said the city intends to buy more boats “and put them all over the island.”
Zack suffered from depression, and his family said they were not sure he really wanted to kill himself. He waded about 150 yards from shore on Memorial Day and told one witness he wanted to stay out there to pray.
Firefighters and police officers called the Coast Guard for help within two minutes of the 911 call they received from the beach, according to Thursday’s report. Other agencies were notified soon after but were unable to provide a rescue craft until about an hour into the incident, the report says - and by then, Zack was already floating face-down.
Grijalva’s report said there should have been better coordination at the scene by fire and police officials, and that they were disorganized when calling for mutual aid and confused by using jargon. They should have called for an Oakland Fire Department shallow-water boat right away instead of the Coast Guard’s vessel, which was unable to attempt a rescue, the report said.
Critics of the city said they would keep the heat on City Hall for reforms, at the Oct. 11 meeting and beyond.
“No matter what they say, it comes down to this: There were a lot of public safety officers who stood on the beach and did nothing,” said one of the more vocal critics, Alameda resident David Howard. “That must never happen again.”
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