19-year-old drowns at Carolina Beach

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — A 19-year-old Raleigh man is dead after drowning Sunday afternoon at Carolina Beach.

Carolina Beach Police Chief William Younginer says Geoffrey Okinyi and two other men were on an intertube when a wave flipped them over. Younginer says the men did not know how to swim. He says two of the men got help back to the beach where they told a lifeguard about their missing friend.

Lifeguards searched for Okinyi and found his body underwater near Harper Ave. around 3 p.m.

Okinyi’s death marks the first drowning of the year at Carolina Beach. Younginer says he hopes it will be the last.