A Harford County man on a day trip with friends to Ocean City drowned yesterday after he fell from an inflatable raft several yards offshore, resort police said.

Police said Roger L. Harrell Jr., 22, of Bel Air was 50 yards offshore at 47th Street about 2: 45 p.m. when a friend saw him fall off the raft into rough water that was being whipped by a breeze.

The friend, 17, alerted the beach patrol, and at least one member of the safety force reached Harrell before he drifted too far from the beach, police said.

After taking Harrell to shore, beach patrol members performed mouth-to-mouth and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Harrell was taken by ambulance to Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, where he was pronounced dead at 3: 50 p.m., police said. The incident was the first drowning while the beach patrol was on duty since September 1997, police said.

Pub Date: 6/14/99