Four East Bay teens – and two sets of cousins - drowned on Memorial Day weekend, leaving families and friends in grief and planning funerals.
Two Oakland cousins, both 15, identified by family as Josiah Pratt and Jamari Wilson, jumped off a boat in Stanislaus County on Saturday without life jackets, the sheriff said. Their bodies surfaced on Tuesday.
"That was my baby, that was my son," Baron Wilson told Sacramento station KCRA over the weekend. "They are not to be forgotten."
Officials at Skyline High confirmed to the Bay Area News Group that Jamari was a student there, and Josiah attended Street Academy, an Oakland-based alternative school. Kevin Jennings, who taught the two at Montera Elementary School in Montclair, said they were popular were always together. Jamari was a star athlete and straight-A student, Wilson told KCRA.
Also on Saturday, 19-year-old Brandon Carranza and 18-year-old Zuleica Ruiz were jumping off rocks in the Mokelumne River in Amador County on Saturday when they were swept downstream and drowned, Undersheriff Jim Wegner said.
Ruiz was scheduled to graduate from Pittsburg High School next week. Carranza graduated last year.
It wasn't immediately clear just how well any of the teens could swim. Authorities strongly recommend the use of life jackets while on boats, and avoiding strong currents of water.
