CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - A 4-year-old boy who had been reported missing from a Coral Springs residential complex has died after he was pulled unresponsive from a nearby lake.
Coral Springs Police responded to a report of a missing child along the 1000 block of Northwest 116th Avenue, in the southwest part of the city, late Sunday afternoon.
Coral Springs-Parkland Fire units also arrived at the scene.
Officials said the boy’s father had called police saying he had taken his son to a playground and had been on his phone for a few minutes when he noticed the boy was no longer in the playground area.
Officers at the scene found the missing child’s toy floating in the lake near the complex.
Rescue divers went into the water and pulled the boy out less than 10 minutes after officers had responded to the scene.
Paramedics transported the boy to Broward Health Coral Springs, where he was pronounced dead.
Coral Springs Police Officer Tyler Reik said these accidents happen frequently, and that’s why teaching children how to swim is so important.
“It happens way too often, not only in Coral Springs, but all over South Florida,” he said. “There’s bodies of water everywhere, between swimming pools, canals, lakes, the ocean. [I’m] just trying to get the parents to learn to teach their children to swim.”
Police continue to investigate.
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