A troubled Queens man who became the latest drowning victim at Rockaway Beach was talking on the phone with his devoted mom hours before he died — as he posted TikToks of himself sitting in the sand and wading into the ocean.
Moises Rodriguez, 30, was found floating near the shoreline at Beach 96th St. about 12:30 a.m. Monday, hours after he posted videos of himself enjoying the beach.
Rodriguez did not have an easy life, according to his mother, Mildred Rodriguez, 58. He suffered from bipolar disorder and PTSD after being discharged from the Army in 2018. He also struggled with alcohol.
Despite his mental health issues, Rodriguez’s mother does not believe her son meant to die Monday.
“I’m really really in shock,” she said. “I just saw a picture of him on Sunday. He was having a nice time on the beach!”
Sunday afternoon he called his mother saying he needed her help — for someone else.
“He called me and said he had met a lady and asked me to help her fill out SNAP and Medicaid paperwork,” said the devastated mom, whose job it is to assist New Yorkers with obtaining benefits.
“He liked to help all the people,” she added. “He had really good manners.”
Moises Rodriguez, who is survived by a 4-year-old daughter who lives with her mother in Alabama, had to take medication to sleep in addition to cope with his mental illness.
“One day he could be on the top and the next day he could be all the way down,” his mother said.
At 9:43 p.m. Sunday, less than three hours before he was dragged unresponsive out of the surf, Rodriguez posted a series of videos to multiple social media platforms.
He contentedly wiggles his toes as he sits in the sand, the sound of the surf rolling in to shore. He pans his phone to show other beachgoers and a sky full of puffy white clouds. “Look at those clouds, bro,” he exclaims.
Born in Washington Heights, Moises Rodriguez and his mother moved to the Dominican Republic when he was young but were back in New York by the time he was 5.
After graduating from high school, he joined the Army, spending 2 ½ years at Fort Benning in Georgia, according to his mother. He was not the same when he returned.
“He was jumping out of planes,” Mildred Rodriguez said of her son’s Army stint. “A lot of stuff happened to him while he was in the Army but he never told me really what happened.”
Although his service seemed to have a negative effect on his mental health, Mildred Rodriguez said he was disappointed when he was unable to reenlist.
Throughout his struggles, Rodriguez’s mother dedicated herself to helping her son any way she could, making sure he took his medication and going with him to doctor’s appointments and recovery meetings.
Rodriguez had enjoyed a five-month period of sobriety last year but ended up relapsing.
“I was trying to get him to the rehab,” said the mother. “I called the VA begging, begging them to help me with that and they said unless he is willing to do it we cannot.”
Mildred Rodriguez believes her son’s alcohol consumption is what led to his death.
“On Sunday I think he really had a lot of alcohol. He spent the whole day drinking, drinking.”
When he was found, medics performed CPR and rushed him to St. John’s Hospital but he could not be saved. A city Medical Examiner autopsy was being conducted Tuesday to confirm his cause of death.
Mildred Rodriguez was in the Dominican Republic when she got a call from police Monday morning but didn’t know how grave the situation was.
“When they called me from the hospital, they didn’t really explain to me what was going on,” she said. “I thought he was in the ER. I thought he got sick.”
It was only when the NYPD got in contact with his cousin — Rodriguez’s other emergency contact listed on his phone — and the cousin asked to speak with him that family learned he had drowned.
Mother and son had planned to get him an apartment in Orlando this summer but his credit score wasn’t high enough to secure the unit, she said. He ended up renting a room in Rockaway Beach in early July but planned on moving back to the Dominican Republic.
“We were planning on taking him back to Santo Domingo,” said Mildred Rodriguez. “We started making that plan last week.”
Instead, she is now making plans for her only child’s funeral.
Moises Rodriguez is the fifth person to die at a city beach so far his summer, already surpassing last year’s total of four drownings.
Locals are still reeling from the deaths last month of two teens who drowned in the surf.
In that June 21 tragedy, Elyjha Chandler, 16, and Christian Perkins, 17, drowned at Jacob Riis Beach in the Rockaways. Their bodies were found a week later.
Christian and Elyjha were in the water near Bay 2 with friends when they were swept under the waves around 6:30 p.m., officials said.
After the boys died, a host of local leaders urged Mayor Adams and city officials to hire more lifeguards and do more to teach kids and young adults to swim. But the city has yet to increase staffing or expand lifeguard hours, which end at 6 p.m. daily.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards called each death a preventable tragedy.
“We’re an oceanfront city, 9 million people,” Richards said after the boys’ deaths. “Under no circumstances should we be struggling to hire lifeguards.”
Dolores Orr, chairwoman of Queens Community Board 14, said local residents have been calling on the Education Department to make swimming a requirement.
Adams has said there should be more of an emphasis on water safety.
“It’s more about education,” Adams told reporters during a recent City Hall press conference. He said parents need to be educated on “when is the time to be in the water and when we don’t want people in the water.”
Two other teens died at a city beach earlier this month. Bronx sisters Zainab Mohammed, 17, and Aisha Mohammed, 18, died while swimming at Coney Island Beach on July 5.
With Thomas Tracy
