Chesterfield pastor drowns on the Outer Banks

SOUTHERN SHORES, N.C.

A Virginia pastor died Wednesday after he was pulled from the ocean off a Southern Shores beach access point, police said.

Edwin Clayton Thornton III, 62, of Chesterfield, was reported at 12:35 p.m. as a near-drowning, said Southern Shores Police Chief David Kole.

Thornton still had vital signs when he was laid on the beach at Chickahauk, off N.C. 12 in Southern Shores. He died a short time after rescuers arrived, the chief said.

“It appears he may have had a heart attack,” Kole said.

Sarah Cosby, administrative assistant at Tomahawk Baptist Church in Midlothian, said Wednesday that Thornton had been senior pastor at the church for 34 years.

Kole said it was the first drowning of the year in Southern Shores.