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Toddler wandered into neighbor’s pool, later dies

Posted at 12:33 PM, Jul 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-05 12:33:14-04

Las Vegas (KVVU) – A toddler wandered away from home into a neighbor’s backyard pool where he drowned Wednesday morning in the west Las Vegas Valley, police said.

Las Vegas Metro police responded to an emergency call involving a child drowning shortly after 11 a.m. Police said a 3-year-old boy was found in a pool on the 5300 block of Supai Drive, near Flamingo and Lindell roads. The boy was unresponsive and taken to a nearby hospital for treatment where he later died.

“They are fast, they do get away from you and it doesn’t take much,” neighbor Steve Gertz said.

“I feel bad,” another neighbor said. “If you have a kid, two or three years old, you should watch them. Don’t let them play or go swimming by themselves.”

Investigators are still piecing together exactly how this happened. Police said a family member was watching the boy. But at some point, the boy wandered away. Then realizing he was missing, the family member started knocking on doors, eventually finding him in a neighbor’s pool.

“It seems to be reoccurring,” Metro Lt. Frank Fama said. “So it’s very important that that message is put out that people need to be more aware of their children around pools.”

Gertz works on pools and he said this hits close to home because he has a young granddaughter. So he takes extra steps to make sure she is safe.

“I do take precautions because I have a swimming pool in my backyard and a fenced in area,” he said.

Police said their message bears repeating: never take your eyes off your kids.

“A few moments can go by and the next thing, it’s minutes,” Lt. Fama said. “Children are very interested in what’s going outside of what they know, they tend to wander off that’s why it’s very important. I can’t stress enough, children need to be attended to at all times.”