Friends, fellow lifeguards remember teen killed by lightning

By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press

BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Friends and fellow lifeguards sat on a Jersey Shore beach and sobbed Tuesday at the spot where a 19-year-old lifeguard was killed by lightning a day earlier. It was the second on-duty death of a teenage lifeguard in New Jersey in less than two weeks and a stark reminder of just how dangerous the job can be. They hugged each other and cried as flowers piled up at the base of the lifeguard stand where Keith Pinto was killed by lightning Monday afternoon in Berkeley Township. Several said it felt unreal that the friend they recently graduated high school with, or worked with on the beach was suddenly gone.