The 20-year-old swimmer who died after a freak lightning strike at Venice Beach over the weekend was electrocuted, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office confirmed on Thursday.
Nick Fagnano was out in the ocean on Sunday afternoon when a bolt of lightning struck near the pier, which electrified the water and shocked nearby swimmers and surfers.
Fagnano was missing for about an hour before a lifeguard found him.
He was transported to a hospital in Marina del Rey, where he was later pronounced dead.
Lt. David Smith of the coroner’s office told KTLA the cause of Fagnano’s death was determined to have been electrocution.
Fagnano, who was getting ready to begin classes at the University of Southern California as a transfer student next month, had gone to the beach with a group of friends on Sunday, according to his uncle, Dennis Shanahan.
The group was about to leave when Fagnano decided to go back into the water to rinse the sand off his feet, Shanahan said.
A short time after, the lightning hit
About a dozen people were also injured during the strike, and eight, including Fagnano, were taken to local hospitals.
A NASA climatologist told KTLA that lightning strikes in the coastal Southern California area are extremely rare, and that the chances of being hit are about 1 in 7 to 10 million.