TEENAGER DROWNS IN RONDOUT CREEK
Was swimming with fellow students from Wallkill High School when he went under
HIGH FALLS, N.Y. » A Wallkill High School honor student who authorities said was submerged in the Rondout Creek for more than 45 minutes died after being pulled from the water Tuesday afternoon.
The Ulster County Sheriff’s Office identified him as Christopher Pelaez, 17, of the hamlet of Wallkill.
Sheriff’s Capt. Vincent Altieri said Pelaez was among a group of Wallkill High School students swimming in the creek when he went under. Authorities were notified about the emergency at 11:43 a.m., and the teen was pulled from the water at 12:30 p.m., Altieri said.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed on Pelaez after he was removed from the water and as he was taken by ambulance to the HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston, but the Sheriff’s Office said he could not be revived and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The incident happened on Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. property where the creek runs along Bruceville Road, off state Route 213. The site is on the Marbletown-Rosendale town line.
Before Pelaez was removed from the water, the search for him in-
cluded divers, rescue crews in small boats, a police dog and an aerial surveillance drone.
The Freeman’s online archives show Pelaez was listed on Wallkill High School’s honor roll last fall, as an 11th-grader. The school’s final day of classes for 2017-18 was last week, though some
students are taking Regents exams this week.
Altieri said there was no evidence that alcohol or drug use played a role in the drowning.
The Sheriff’s Office said it was assisted in the rescue effort by state police, the Ulster County Department of Emergency Services, the Rosendale Police Department, the Ulster Hose Fire Department’s search-andrescue team and the High Falls Fire Department.