Birds Hill drowning victim identified as U of M track star

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This article was published 20/08/2016 (3311 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A young man who drowned Saturday at Birds Hill Provincial Park was a high school track star and a proud new Canadian.

“It’s always good to be in the winning, strongest team,” Jean-Baptiste Ajua, 22 posted on Facebook with a photo taken at his citizenship ceremony in January. “Proud to be a Canadian.”

On Saturday afternoon, Ajua was at Birds Hill beach with friends from his church when he disappeared in the water. He was found two hours later, unresponsive, and taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

Before Ajua drowned, he was playing volleyball on the beach with other young people who belong to St. Kizito African Catholic Community in St. Boniface, said a friend who was there and asked not to be identified because he hadn’t received permission from Ajua’s family to speak to the media. 

Saturday’s trip to Birds Hill wasn’t organized by the church but was an informal gathering of youth who attended the church, Ajua’s friend said. The young man and his family from Rwanda came to Canada as government-assisted refugees when Ajua was a child, he said. “He was a cool guy,” he said Sunday morning, his voice heavy with emotion and exhaustion.

Ajua was a runner. In 2013, the Free Press reported that the Elmwood High School graduate was his school’s MVP in track and field and the school’s athlete of the year. He was recruited by the University of Manitoba Bisons track and field team as one of its five top recruits from the Manitoba high school system. 

“Jean-Baptiste was a kind and gentle person and also a talented young runner,” Bisons track and field coach Claude Berube said Sunday.

“JB, as he was known by his teammates, was well liked by all,” said Berube. “He also had a busy and balanced life – juggling school, work, family life while performing very well.” Ajua ran for the Bisons for just one school year but did not slow down. In June at the Manitoba Marathon, he finished 8th in the men’s half-marathon with a time of 01:24:52.

Losing Ajua, who was so full of life, is heartbreaking, said his friend who was at Birds Hill on Saturday.

“I was with the young man a few minutes before everything happened,” he said. He heard that Ajua was in distress and had disappeared below the murky surface of the man-made lake. “I tried to swim fast for the rescue after calling for help,” he said. He decided to go back to shore to get a life jacket. When he returned with it, he was asked to leave the water by a woman with the beach safety patrol who told him he lacked the training to help. “I tried to explain that I was very confident and well trained… but she forced me out. The only thing I had to do was just counting seconds and knowing that a brother and a friend’s life was at stake.” He said he was left to try and comfort friends and relatives “who were so devastated with the tragedy.”

Later, he was able to join the “human chain” of searchers linking arms in the water “just hoping to find the body” and no longer able to save a life. Ajua’s body was found more than an hour later.

“This will haunt me forever,” his friend said. He thanked all the volunteers and workers who helped to locate Ajua’s body.

 Beach safety officers and volunteers were joined by emergency crews from East St. Paul and Springfield. A STARS air ambulance was sent to the scene. It was the second time in less than a week that a search took place in the water at Birds Hill. On Wednesday, a false drowning report resulted in people being ordered from the water while a three-hour search was conducted. After the drowning deaths of two children earlier this month at Grand Beach, authorities are on heightened alert. 

On Aug. 1, two Winnipeg children Jhonalyn Javier, 11, and David Medina, 12, drowned at Grand Beach. A parent was watching the children in the water but apparently lost sight of them in the setting sun.

Soon afterward, Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox announced the launch of a province-wide review of beach safety practices. Cox said at the time that it could lead to more beach safety officers on duty, more provincial beaches with safety patrols, and even some form of limitation on how many people could be on a beach at any given time.

Only three of Manitoba’s 83 provincial beaches have beach safety officers — Grand Beach, Winnipeg Beach and Birds Hill. They are the province’s most heavily used beaches.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca