Andrew’s Bridge: Friends and Family Remembered the Life of a Cutler Bay Teenager Who Drowned in a Canal on the Fourth of July, Raising Questions About Water Safety for Youths

By Patricia Mazzei, The Miami Herald

Jul. 19–The makeshift memorial is strewn with teddy bears, candles and flowers. Laminated poems and notes hang on crosses leaning against the tall metal fence. Scrawled on the ground, in black permanent marker, are the words “Andrew’s Bridge.”

The keepsakes are there for Andrew Lazare, 14, who drowned in a Cutler Bay canal after jumping in for a swim on the Fourth of July. On Saturday, family and friends gathered to celebrate Andrew’s life with music, singing and eulogies.

“You often hear people say that adults have an impact,” said Sandra Hall, his Sunday school teacher. “This is a young person that had a dramatic effect on a lot of people. He taught kids that you don’t have to be like everyone else to be OK.”

Stephanie Marriott, one of Andrew’s three older sisters, recalled her brother’s “almond-shaped eyes and piercing dimples” and talked about his premature birth.

“Why’d he come so quickly to leave so early?” she said to a packed sanctuary at the Upper Room Assembly of God Church, 19701 SW 127th Ave. in South Miami Heights.

Tragedy struck when Andrew dove into the murky green-blue waters of the Bel-Aire Canal from a narrow foot bridge at Bel-Aire Drive and Southwest 200th Street.

One of the friends who was with him, Stephanie Aredondo, told WFOR-CBS 4 that when he yelled for help, they thought he was joking.

‘He was trying to come up for air and stuff like that, he said ‘help,’ but we thought he was playing with us, because he does that sometimes,” she said.

Another friend eventually dove in, but couldn’t find Andrew, WFOR-CBS 4 reported. By the time Miami-Dade Fire Rescue divers found Andrew and tried to revive him, it was too late.

Officials said it was unclear whether Andrew, who had just graduated from eighth grade at Cutler Ridge Middle School and whose friends said knew how to swim, had a cramp, hit his head or got entangled in something. Police said the canal is 14 to 20 feet deep.

Even though a sign warns against swimming or diving into the canal, neighborhood kids said they often swim there, especially during hot summer days.

“The [bridge] is a high jump,” said Jesse Falla, 16.

That jump, other friends said, makes the canal a better place to go swimming than any pool. “It’s more fun,” said Francesca Hosein, 14.

Andrew’s death has raised questions among some residents about how to provide safer venues for kids to go swimming. While Andrew’s friends said they learned their lesson about jumping into the canal, adults said more should be done to protect children.

“What can we do, if anything, to get kids to not go into the canal?” asked Marlyne Delima, a West Kendall resident whose father, Rudy, dated Andrew’s mother for many years. Andrew called Rudy Delima “Dad.”

Miami-Dade Police Cmdr. Richard J. Pichardo, who heads Cutler Bay’s police unit, said his officers have standing orders to patrol bridges to keep kids from swimming in the canal.

“We’re always going by there,” said Officer Gigi Ortiz, who made it to the scene after two of her colleagues had already jumped in trying to rescue Andrew. “We always see the kids; we always tell them to get off. But kids will be kids.”

Parents and police are encouraging area kids to go swimming in the pool at Cutler Ridge Park, 10100 SW 200th St. Children have to pay $1.50 to use the pool, although some parents said they would prefer it be free for residents and not so tied up with swim team practices and lessons.

“It doesn’t do any good if they can’t go and hang out there and it’s all roped off,” said Anne Truby-Thompson, a swimming instructor whose daughter Katie, 14, was a good friend of Andrew’s.

Town Manager Steven Alexander said the town is considering getting rid of the foot bridge Andrew jumped from, but administrators still need to figure out who owns it and how much it would cost to remove.

At the church service, friends and teachers talked about Andrew’s close relationship with his mother, Carole Gaillot, his elegant grooming and his height: six feet, two inches.

“Andrew stood out in the class,” said Penny Thomas, his fourth grade Sunday school teacher. “Andrew was always clean, always neat. I never asked him once to pull up his pants or wear a belt.”

Classmates comforted each other as they watched a slide show of Andrew’s life, from infancy to family Christmas dinners. And his date from the prom at Cutler Ridge Middle School read a poem titled, “To my gentle giant.”

Instead of going to Coral Reef Senior High School — where his mother wanted him to go — Andrew chose Robert Morgan Educational Center in West Kendall, where he had planned to study graphic animation.

After the service and burial, some friends returned to the foot bridge to bring fresh flowers and remember Andrew one more time.

“He was a loving guy,” Kevin Escotto, 16, said. “It’s a terrible loss.”

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