A Cobbs Creek resident drowned on Sunday while swimming off Bavon Beach in Mathews.

Edward G. Renner, 44, of the 300 block of Roane Point Road, was pronounced deceased at the scene at 6:15 p.m., said Major John Williams of the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a report from Williams, dispatchers received several 911 calls around 5:10 p.m. Sunday afternoon in reference to a male drowning victim who was unresponsive at New Point Comfort Lighthouse. Witnesses to the drowning had brought the victim to shore and had begun CPR.

Mathews Volunteer Rescue Squad responded to the New Point overlook, said Williams, but determined that the incident had occurred in the Bavon Beach area instead. They arrived at the beach at 5:21 p.m., he said, then had to walk with what equipment they could carry over a half-mile down the beach to reach the victim.

EMT-I Scotty Bergman of MVRS said the Bavon Beach Homeowners Association had provided an AED for initial use by the witnesses, and rescue efforts were in progress when the rescue squad arrived at the scene. The homeowners’ association also provided golf carts for subsequent rescue personnel to haul more equipment to the scene, Bergman said, adding that rescue efforts would have been impossible without the assistance of the neighbors in Bavon Beach.

The rescue squad called for assistance from the Mathews Volunteer Fire Department at 5:34 p.m., said Major Williams, and firefighters responded, as well. He said the medical examiner was contacted and was due to examine the body at the funeral home.

During the drowning incident, another distress call was received regarding an overturned kayak in the same area as the drowning, said Williams. The subject made it to shore and was uninjured.

Major Williams said he did not know if weather conditions were a factor in the drowning. Meteorologist Eric Seymour, Warning Coordinator at the National Weather Service–Wakefield, said that a small craft advisory was in effect for the Chesapeake Bay on Sunday. The closest buoys to New Point Comfort showed winds of 13 to 17 knots per hour with gusts up to 20 knots per hour and around a two-foot surf early Sunday evening, he said.