San Diego

A 12-year-old San Diego boy died Wednesday morning of injuries received Tuesday when a tetherball rope apparently became tangled around his neck. Tou Yee Yang was pronounced dead at 11:16 a.m. at Children’s Hospital, where he had been transferred in critical condition from Sharp Memorial Hospital, according to Deputy Coroner George Dickason.

Minutes before the accident, Yang was seen playing with the homemade tetherball set, which consisted of a rope tied to a porch in front of his home with a noose on one end to hold the ball, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. When relatives discovered Yang at 4:35 p.m., the ball had fallen from the noose, which had become wrapped around the boy’s neck, Robinson said.

Police theorize that the boy had climbed onto a porch railing to adjust the rope when he slipped and became caught in the noose, Robinson said.