1 Killed, 2 Hurt in Plunge From Laguna Rocks

A shoreline stroll in Laguna Beach on Mother’s Day turned into tragedy when three people, including a 6-year-old girl, plunged from a rock outcropping amid a cresting wave and got trapped in the pounding surf.

One drowned, another was in critical condition and the girl was hospitalized in good condition.

Horrified onlookers said the couple and child were walking along the rocks at Divers Cove just north of Heisler Park along Pacific Coast Highway when the girl slipped, and her mother and a male friend jumped into the churning waters to rescue her.

Witnesses said the waves tossed the three about as they watched helplessly while the drama unfolded.

Lifeguards, along with a police officer, arrived on the scene about 2:40 p.m., minutes after a 911 call was made, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Ray Lardie said.

“Once you go in, there’s no way out. It’s sheer walls. Right in the cove there, the waves really do bang,” he said.

Rescuers were able to reach all three people, but the man was badly injured and was pronounced dead at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills.

The woman was taken to Laguna Beach’s South Coast Medical Center, where she remains in critical condition. Her daughter was in good condition at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Lardie said.

Police identified them as Zackery Noah Kunler, 24, of Seal Beach, Angelica Delores Cuevas, 26, and her daughter, Brooke Poling. Investigators still are trying to determine how the three people fell. The child told police all three lost their footing when rushing waves broke over them. But witnesses said the girl fell first and the other two jumped in after her.

Lifeguard Lt. Steve Diederich said rescuers raced to a section of the cove called “Gigglecrack,” a 20-foot-long, 4- to 6-foot-wide, 8- to 10-foot-deep crack in the rocks that opens out to the ocean.

Lifeguards Patrick Quigley and Mark Sproull arrived first and fought 2- to 4-foot waves in 65-degree temperature to reach the three, who were thrashing in the waters.

“The little girl was rescued first. She was on the man’s shoulders and had a death grip on the adult. Patrick literally had to pry her off him,” Diederich said.

Quigley swam with the child back to the entrance of the crack, handing her over to Sproull, before heading back out to see the woman’s head go under water. Quigley quickly reached her and swam back to shore.

Sproull, after turning the girl over to paramedics, sprinted back into the churning surf to reach the man. Aided by another lifeguard, he dragged him to shore.

Both the man and woman were unconscious, in respiratory and cardiac arrest, by the time they were on the beach, Diederich said.

Dozens of beach-goers looked on as the three were overtaken by the waves and authorities began rescue efforts. One man rushed from his mother’s cliff-side home overlooking Divers Cove to get help when he realized they were drowning.

“They were people that shouldn’t have been on the rocks,” said Whittier resident David Pattapoff, who scrambled from the house to alert police. “Big waves come in and take you right off. . . . The seas are treacherous right now.”

Jennifer Ovalle, who had come to the beach with her three children to celebrate Mother’s Day, ordered her kids away from the water. Ovalle was concerned that there had not been enough warnings about water conditions.

“There used to be a lifeguard stand and there used to be a sign,” Ovalle said. “We were wondering today why there is no sign. The city should have known. It was Mother’s Day weekend and it was packed. It’s always packed for the holidays.”

Lifeguards use a flag system along Main Beach to warn of surf conditions, with yellow indicating semi-hazardous conditions of 2- to 4-foot surf. But there are no such signs in the cove area, which is about a mile north.

“Even if they had been up, would they have had an impact? Probably not,” Mayor Steve Dicterow said. “It’s a nice day, and people will walk along those rocks no matter what signs are up. But we will investigate and see if something could have been done better because I don’t want it to happen again.”

The area where the three had been walking is a fairly flat rock outcropping abutting a cliff wall that is popular with visitors.

Diederich suggested that all beach visitors check with lifeguards about surf conditions before venturing out.

“On a day like today, with yellow flags, they would have said it’s best to stay on the beach and not walk along the rock points,” he said.

It is the second death this month on Laguna Beach’s shores. On May 2, an off-duty Los Angeles firefighter was pulled from the ocean off Laguna Beach nearly four hours after he’d been reported missing by his diving party.

Michael Pizinger, 32, of San Pedro had been diving with his wife and a friend in Shaw’s Cove, a popular diving spot less than a mile north of Main Beach.