JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- A 5-year-old drowned in a neighbor’s pool Wednesday, said the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Kyrie Michiah Johnson drowned around 5 p.m. in the backyard of a home on Ortega Bluff Parkway, said homicide investigators.
According to Sgt. Chuck Ford, the homeowner received a call from neighbors saying the little girl was missing from her house. The homeowner checked the houses surveillance system through his cellphone and saw the victim in the pool.
The homeowner was nearby doing yard work when he ran home to pull the child from the pool. The victim was rushed to the hospital where she later died.
Ford said the girl lived in a house adjacent to the house with the pool in the backyard.
News4Jax said a neighbor told them the child was a girl with special needs and that she had wondered off numerous of times in the past.
The neighbor said she heard of the tragic event through other neighbors who were out walking. Neighbors in the Ortega Hill neighborhood are deeply saddened by the event.
The community has never seen anything like this happen, neighbors are very close and didn’t know what was going on at first.
Investigators are still looking into the incident. Right now it is still unclear who was supposed to be watching the child and they are trying to figure out how the child got away. Investigators also say it is unclear whether the parents were home at the time the child wandered off.
According to Ford, the pool the child wandered into was an in-ground pool that was fenced off by a wooden, gated fence. The fence also “appears to be appropriate in size and nature for a typical neighborhood.”
Ford suggests parents watch their children closely during these hot summer months.
The Department of Children and Families was notified. The investigation is ongoing with the Sheriff’s Office.
