A new 911 call captures the frantic moments after a 19-year-old runner was struck and killed by lightning in a Davie park last month.
Ethan Lawrence was running in Vista View Park on June 30 when he was struck by lightning.
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"I believe someone just got struck by lightning up on the hill. I saw lightning strike and somebody just fell down," a woman tells a 911 operator in the call obtained by NBC6 on Monday. "I was leaving and a big thing of lightning came and I have not seen the person get up."
The caller said she wasn't completely sure he'd been hit based on where she was at the bottom of the hill.
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"I was driving at the bottom of the hill to exit the park and a huge thing of lightning came. I saw a guy walking up on the hill and then all the sudden he was like down," she said. "It looked like the lightning was like right on him."
"It looked so scary and he just, the person just went down on the ground," she said later in the call.
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Lawrence was a star athlete at West Broward High School who went to Jacksonville University on a cross country scholarship. He transferred to Nova Southeastern University when his girlfriend, Andrea Lares, had a baby six months ago. Lawrence was training in a bid to make the NSU cross country team as a walk-on.
“I’m still in shock, I’m still trying to process all of it, the way it happened, in a matter of seconds, he texted me in the morning, 'Good morning love, I woke up late today,'" Lares told NBC6 after the incident. “Last thing he sent me was a picture of his baby.”
“I’m so grateful and thankful that I had 19 beautiful years with my son," mother Lourdes Lawrence said. "We had an unbreakable bond, he would text me every morning in college, as a college student, 'Good morning momma, I’m on my way to run with the team,' 'Hey mom, I’m back from running with the team, my legs feel like bricks' — just telling me his day, Facetiming me, calling me."
