Former Jacksonville University student killed in lightning strike in South Florida

DAVIE, Florida. – A 19-year-old man was killed by lightning in South Florida on Sunday, according to News4JAX partner station WPLG.

Ethan Lawrence was on Jacksonville University’s cross country team last fall. He later transferred to Nova Southeastern University in Broward County after his girlfriend gave birth to their daughter in December, WSVN reported.

Lawrence was hoping to join his school’s cross-country team, so he went for a practice run at a park in Davie on Sunday morning.

When his mother tracked him down several hours later and his location did not change, she sent her husband to look for her son.

“And then the detectives came to my car and told me, ‘I don’t know if there’s an easy way to say this, so I’ll just tell you that unfortunately your son ran, got struck by lightning and didn’t make it,'” Patrick Lawrence, Ethan’s father, told WPLG.

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The next day, the family went back to the park, hoping to find answers to some of their questions about his sudden death.

“We went to the accident site and Ethan led me to where he was hit. I saw the hole in the ground and looked down. My husband said, ‘Look, his cross,'” she said. “He tells me, ‘Mommy, I’m OK, I’m OK, you’re OK,'” said Lourdes Lawrence, Ethan’s mother.

The victim was loved by many. He recently became a father. He had a six-month-old girl – and his girlfriend is devastated.

“The last thing he sent me was a picture of the baby … sleeping,” Andrea Medina, Ethan’s girlfriend, told WPLG.