Authorities released partial body camera video footage on Wednesday of the scene at a Gulf Coast beach on the Florida panhandle where Ryan Mallett, a former NFL player, died in an apparent drowning earlier this week.
Addressing public speculation about conditions in the water that may have caused the fatal incident, the sheriff said rip currents — which the National Weather Service linked to at least seven deaths at nearby Panama City Beach over the course of nine days this month, between June 15 and 24 — were not present in the area and therefore did not play a role in the fatal incident.
Citing deputies who responded to the drowning incident, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said they arrived at the beach near Gulf Shore Drive in Destin just after 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday afternoon, and found a group of people in the water, near the second sandbar, who had reportedly been struggling to return to shore. One person in the group, later identified as Mallett, went under and was not breathing when lifeguards pulled him out. Destin is about 50 miles away from Panama City Beach.
Lifesaving measures were unsuccessful, and Mallett was later pronounced dead at the Destin Emergency Room, according to the sheriff's office.
"In response to dozens of media inquiries from across the U.S., we wanted to report that Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office investigators are continuing to gather information in the drowning of an Arkansas tourist Tuesday afternoon in the Gulf of Mexico," the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said in a post shared to Facebook on Wednesday, which included a brief clip that showed a deputy running down the beach while responding to the scene.
In response to dozens of media inquiries from across the U.S., we wanted to report that Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office investigators are continuing to gather information in the drowning of an Arkansas tourist Tuesday afternoon in the Gulf of Mexico. The victim is identified as former NFL professional athlete Ryan Mallett. Investigators say Mallett began struggling while attempting to swim to a second sandbar about 150 feet offshore of the beach near Gulf Shores Drive in Destin around 2:15 p.m. Despite widespread media misinformation, yellow beach safety flags were flying at the time and there were no indications of any "riptides". The video below shows beach conditions as an OCSO deputy rushes to the scene. Sheriff Eric Aden says the entire agency and the community at large are saddened by the tragedy.
Posted by Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday, June 28, 2023
"Investigators say Mallett began struggling while attempting to swim to a second sandbar about 150 feet offshore of the beach near Gulf Shores Drive in Destin around 2:15 p.m.," the post continued, adding, "Despite widespread media misinformation, yellow beach safety flags were flying at the time and there were no indications of any 'riptides.'"
Mallett was 35 when he died on Tuesday. A former Arkansas quarterback who also played for Baltimore, Houston and New England over the course of five seasons with the NFL, was most recently coaching football at White Hall High School in Arkansas, where he was from originally.
"The tragic loss of life ... it's always difficult when we lose a tourist or resident here, but we have no indication here of any dangerous conditions out there," Sheriff Eric Aden said in a videotaped statement.
Officials with Destin Fire Control District released a separate statement that echoed the sheriff's remarks about conditions at the beach in Destin.
"There were no rip currents present in the area in which we responded to Ryan Mallet," they said in the statement, which Destin Beach Safety, a rescue service, shared on Facebook Wednesday, adding that yellow warning flags were placed on the beach at the time of his drowning. A yellow flag "indicates medium hazard, moderate surf and/or currents," the statement continued.