A 911 caller watched in horror as a teen dad was struck by lightning during a storm and suddenly fell to the ground.
Ethan Lawrence, 19, was killed as he ran across Vista View Park in Davie, about 11 miles southwest of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on June 30.
The recent high school graduate and father of a six-month-old girl was at the park running, which was his passion, his father Patrick Lawrence wrote on Facebook.
Emergency calls released this week reveal the moment Ethan was hit by the bolt of electricity and immediately collapsed.
‘I believe someone just got struck by lightning up on the hill. I saw lightning strike and somebody just fell down,’ the woman told the operator.
‘I was leaving and a big thing of lightning came and I have not seen the person get up.’
The caller said she didn’t see the lightning actually hit him from where she was, but it was ‘right on him’ the instant before he fell.
‘I was driving at the bottom of the hill to exit the park and a huge thing of lightning came. I saw a guy walking up on the hill and then all the sudden he was like down,’ she said.
‘It looked so scary and he just, the person just went down on the ground.’
Ethan’s girlfriend Andrea Lares recalled the her last moments him before he went on the run, despite the bad weather.
‘I’m still in shock, I’m still trying to process all of it, the way it happened, in a matter of seconds, he texted me in the morning, ‘Good morning love, I woke up late today,” she told NBC.
‘Last thing he sent me was a picture of his baby.’
His mother Lourdes Lawrence added that she was grateful for the time she had with her son.
‘We had an unbreakable bond, he would text me every morning in college, as a college student, ‘Good morning momma, I’m on my way to run with the team,’ ‘Hey mom, I’m back from running with the team, my legs feel like bricks,’ she said.
Lawrence said he son died ‘doing what he loved’ and his death broke the hearts of his family.
‘Pray for him and my family. We will miss him and never forget the amazing 19 years he gave us. I will never stop loving you big guy!’ he wrote on Facebook.
The park was open, according to police.
Lawrence was a freshman at Jacksonville University, and before that was a competitive Division 1 cross country runner in high school.
Sarah Ramsey Perry, who knew him and his family, wrote a tribute for him on Facebook.
‘Ethan Lawrence, a beautiful, smart, athletic, wonderful young man lost his life today. He was out running…. doing something he absolutely loved when he got struck by lightning,’ she wrote.
‘Losing a child Is the absolutely worst pain a mother can endure!
‘I know Ethan’s mother Lourdes. She is an amazing woman and a great mom. Her kindness, love and support doing the worst time in my life meant the world to me.
‘I’m asking you all to say prayers for her, Ethan and her family now to help her through this most heartbreaking time in her life.’