A 21-year-old Hebron man drowned Thursday after swimming to retrieve an object that fell off a dock at Marina Shores along the Burns Waterway.

The victim, Gabriel Gonzalez, saw the device fall into the water from a nearby boat slip and offered to retrieve it as it floated away, said Tyler Brock, conservation officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The slipholder said to let it go, but Gonzalez dived in anyway.

As Gonzalez was swimming back to the dock with the device, he entered an electrical field and immediately sank underwater, not coming back up, Brock said.

Francis Gonzalez, 23, jumped into the water when he saw his brother go under. When he entered the electrical field, the person at the other slip threw him a flotation device and pulled him to safety, Brock said.

Conservation officers responded to the scene around 11 a.m.

Francis was transported by Portage Fire Department paramedics to Northwest Health-Porter, where he was treated and released.

When the water was deemed safe to enter, a Portage Fire Department dive team recovered Gabriel and transported him to Northwest Health-Porter, where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy determined the cause of death was accidental, drowning secondary to electrocution, the Porter County coroner’s office said.

No other electrical fields were found, and the dock’s electrical infrastructure was determined to be safe, Brock said. Because of the ongoing investigation, no additional information regarding the source of the electricity will be released.

Conservation officers urge the public to never enter the water near any dock with electric power due to the risk of electrocution and drowning.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.