The Labor Day weekend got off to a tragic start at Holiday Marina on Lake Lanier Saturday when a 23-year-old man drowned.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) confirmed the fatal drowning in a press release early Sunday. A spokesperson for the agency says game wardens responded to a report of a drowning shortly after 10 p.m. on September 2.
“An adult male was running down a dock, slipped, fell in, and did not resurface,” says Georgia DNR Law Enforcement Division spokesperson Mark McKinnon.
McKinnon identified the victim as Gavrie Alexander Whitlock of Snellville. Hall County Fire Rescue recovered his body in 17 feet of water.
This is the eighth fatal drowning in Lake Lanier in 2023.
In an unrelated incident, game wardens issued one BUI citation on Lake Lanier Saturday. No other incidents, injuries, or deaths have been reported this weekend on state waterways.
