Double Drowning of Two Children at Apartment Complex Swimming Pool

Two children, ages 9 and 11, gained access to one of the swimming pools at an apartment complex in the middle of the afternoon on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. The children were not residents of this apartment complex, but the pool was open for swimming. The 11-year-old female decided to jump into the deep end of the pool and in so doing, began struggling and submerged below the surface and descended to the bottom of the pool. The 9 year old male jumped in the water to assist his older sister. As a result, both children died as a result of drowning or near-drowning complications. A 10-year-old male cousin witnessed the incident and attempted to save the 9-year-old male child. But, the child slipped from his grasp. The 10-year-old then attempted to alert others about the incident in an attempt to secure help for his cousins. However, when he was able to communicate the problem that his cousins were drowning in the pool, no one believed him because they could not see the bodies of the two children lying on the bottom of the pool due to the condition of the water. The water was so cloudy that police and firefighter personnel arriving on the scene could not see the children on the bottom of the pool and had difficulty locating the children once they entered the water. In addition, the depth markings on the pool were inverted in that the deep end was marked with a (6) rather than a (9) foot depth. The 9-year-old was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The 11-year-old was resuscitated and survived for several days before she died.