An Iowa man drowned when he either fell or jumped from a police boat after being arrested at Lake of the Ozarks.
The Missouri Highway Patrol reports 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson of Clive, Iowa was arrested just before 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 31, 2014 for allegedly boating while intoxicated.
As Ellingson was being transported across the lake after his arrest, “he stood up in the moving vessel, stepped to the edge starboard side, and fell or jumped overboard” according to the highway patrol’s online report.
Lake Alert, a local news outlet at the Lake of the Ozarks, reported Ellingson was handcuffed and was wearing a life jacket when he was arrested, and that his life jacket had come off at some time during the incident according to a highway patrol spokesman. A water patrol officer reportedly jumped in after Ellingson but could not rescue him.
Ellingson’s body was recovered by a dive team just before 11:30 a.m. the next day.
Ellingson was a student at Arizona State University.
