Ishmoile Mohammed, who drowned off Fire Island, remembered as hardworking brother and father

The pastor of a North Carolina church wiped tears from his eyes Sunday morning remembering Ishmoile Mohammed, a member of the congregation who drowned Saturday off Fire Island after getting caught in a powerful rip current.

Congregants nicknamed the avid churchgoer, a hardworking father and brother, "Pastor Mo." Mohammed, 59, spoke to the congregation just last week. He was on vacation with his family at the Fire Island National Seashore, swimming in the ocean at Sailors Haven in the early afternoon Saturday when he was swept west by the current, according to authorities and people who knew him.

“They were having a good old time. They were coming out of the water … and a rip current took him … His nephew turned to look and he was gone, just like that,” said Pastor Rodney Camps of Love City Church in Pineville, North Carolina, during a service on Sunday.

“By the time they got him, they had to airlift him to the hospital," Camps said during the livestreamed service.

Desert Storm veteran

Lifeguards, with the help of Fire Island National Seashore workers, pulled Mohammed from the water at 2:45 p.m., according to police. He was airlifted to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, where he was pronounced dead, the Suffolk County Police Department said, adding that Homicide Squad detectives are investigating.

Mohammed's family told Newsday on Sunday they were too distraught to give an interview.

The beach was open for swimming on Saturday, but Fire Island National Seashore Superintendent Alexcy Romero said Sunday that he did not know whether Mohammed was swimming in an area monitored by lifeguards.

Mohammed served in the U.S. Army from 1985 to 1997, working in communications during Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and Operation Desert Storm in 1991 in Iraq, according to a 2010 interview he gave to a Saratoga Springs newspaper. He also completed a tour in Kuwait in 1993, and served in Bosnia and Kosovo in 1997.

In 2000, Mohammed joined the New York Army National Guard as a recruiter, continuing on a career of service as a citizen soldier.

'Sense of honor'

“To me, it’s the best of both worlds,” Mohammed said in the interview some 15 years ago. “I like the sense of honor, pride and believing in what you stand for.”

Mohammed later worked as a family assistant specialist for the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Farmingdale, according to his LinkedIn page, until he moved to South Carolina. There, he joined that state’s National Guard as a family readiness specialist, according to the agency’s website. Mohammed's LinkedIn page states he graduated from Wyandanch Memorial High School, but additional information about possible relatives on Long Island or when he moved to the South were not immediately available Sunday.

The scene at Sailors Haven on Sunday looked like most summer days: Beachgoers spread out on towels, sharing laughs and snacks, soaking in the sun.

For others at the Fire Island beach, the tragedy that unfolded less than 24 hours earlier loomed over the day.

Avoiding the water

Chris Honor, 58, of Nesconset, said he was in the area Saturday and returned to the beach Sunday. He sat on a chair in the sand, avoiding the water.

“I’ve never liked going in,” Honor said, adding he goes only waist deep at Sailors Haven. “You get caught in that current, and it pulls you. It’s scary."

He added: "I feel for their family. You come here to enjoy the day, and then it’s tragedy.”

One young girl walking down the steps onto the sand asked her father if she could go in the ocean. “No,” he said firmly. “It’s rough.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced early Sunday afternoon that all state park beaches on Long Island were open again for swimming after rough surf conditions and flooding had "mostly subsided."

Powerful currents

Barry Lipsky, a diving instructor for the Bayport Fire Department Water Rescue Team, said he wasn't aware of Saturday's drowning, but noted the water had a "tremendous amount of power."

“It’s flowing very, very strongly from east to west, so it’s easy to get caught up in there and get yourself swept across the beach,” Lipsky said.

Lifeguards were being "very, very proactive" on Sunday, "keeping a very keen eye on everybody," he said. "They're really alert."

Rip currents take more than 100 lives each year across the country, accounting for 80% of all lifeguard rescues, Newsday previously reported. On Aug. 11, a swimmer on the Jersey Shore died after he and six others were trapped in a rip current off an unguarded beach in Seaside Heights. Later that day, a woman died in the rip currents of Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn.

Officials encourage beachgoers to stay safe by swimming near a lifeguard and paying attention to posted flags indicating surf conditions. If caught up in a rip current, swimmers should remain calm, float and swim parallel to the shoreline to avoid exhaustion, according to experts.

Most Long Island beaches post flags by lifeguard stations to mark rip current conditions: Red means no swimming, yellow indicates rip currents are expected, and green gives the go-ahead that the water is safe.

Newsday's Robert Brodsky contributed to this story.