A Rome man was killed on Weiss Lake on Sunday evening after he came into contact with electric current in the water at a pier near Cowan Creek.

Jeremy David Whiteside, 24, had been skiing and knee-boarding with friends and was returning to shore about 7 p.m. when the accident happened, said Cherokee County Marine Police Officer Rick Sides.

The group of four or five young men were on a boat and skiing near the pier when Whiteside apparently was electrocuted.

Whiteside was taken to Cherokee Medical Center Sunday night and died in the emergency room, Cherokee County Coroner Don Rogers said this morning.

Medics checked out a couple of Whiteside’s friends who were shocked while trying to assist Whiteside, but they did not appear to be seriously injured, Rogers said.

The pier, which is near Cherokee County Road 22, is mostly wood with a couple of metal ladders, Sides said.

A windmill, which can be run by electricity, was on the pier.

Rogers and Sides, who are investigating the death, will take statements from witnesses and they expect to release more information this week, Rogers said.

The young men with Whiteside were too upset to talk Sunday night, Rogers said.

The death is the first fatality on Weiss Lake in more than two years, he added.

“You read about something like this happening in other places,” Sides said