Another Death at Sunset Cliffs – Fisherman Dies at Luscom’s

Sunset Cliffs. Photo by Matthew Wood

There’s been yet another death at Sunset Cliffs – this time a man fishing near Luscom’s jumped into the ocean on Sunday, July 24th around 1 pm, reportedly to cool off, and ran into trouble immediately, according to bystanders. Luscom’s is near Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Monaco Street.

He’s been identified as San Diego resident AbelkHalek Boutayeb, 61.

Boutayeb had been fishing for about2 hours when bystanders saw him either climb down the cliffs and got in the water or jumped in. As he struggled, he hit his head against the reef.  One or 2 people jumped in and tried to save him, and one of them tried to keep the victim afloat.

The report from the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office stated:

“A short time later bystanders heard him yelling for help. A witness jumped in the water to assist him and found him face down in the water.”

Emergency crews arrived and pulled Boutayeb from the water. Their efforts at resuscitating him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene.   San Diego Patch  7NBC

Latest Is 2nd Death – Plus Two Serious Injuries – at Sunset Cliffs This Month

This most recent fatality comes just 3 weeks after a man fell to his death on July 5th near Ladera Street along Sunset Cliffs.  And it comes just 11 days after a woman on July 10th was found seriously injured at  the bottom of the cliffs and had to be air-lifted by helicopter off the beach.

Finally, it comes just a day after a 49-year-old surfer slipped, hitting his head on a rocky edge along the cliffs near Osprey. About 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 23rd, the surfer was getting out of the water, when he slipped, getting knocked unconscious.  When first reponders arrived, they found him being held up out of the water on the rocks by a friend. At that point, he didn’t have a pulse. CPR was performed and he revived. An air ambulance hoisted him from the cliffs and flew him to a nearby hospital.

Also, back in February this year, a man’s body was found floating about half a mile off Osprey on Sunset Cliffs.

The OB Rag has been chronicling death and serious injuries at Sunset Cliffs over the last decade and half, and in 2015, published “Death and Distress at Sunset Cliffs – 2005 to 2015“. Its summary concluded that there’s been an average of 3 deaths and serious injuries per year over that 11 year period; we also found that 2015 had already one of the worst years of these incidents.

There was at least 2 fatalities at the Cliffs last year. They included the death of a well-known local young man whose car crashed over the side of the cliffs in January 2015. And it includes a male swimmer who never returned to the shore alive back in August.