Boy, 2, Drowns in Chatsworth Apartment Swimming Pool

A 2-year-old Chatsworth boy drowned Friday evening in a swimming pool at the apartment complex where he lived, police and fire officials said.

Police identified the boy as Joseph Johnson, who turned 2 only two weeks ago.

Bystanders had pulled the boy out of the pool and were attempting to revive him when firefighters and paramedics arrived at the complex, in the 21000 block of West Gresham Avenue, shortly before 6:30 p.m., Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

Authorities were unsure how Joseph got into the pool, but witnesses said he was in the water “only a minute or two,” Humphrey added.

Humphrey said the child had no pulse and was not breathing upon arrival at West Hills Regional Medical Center.

The boy’s mother was too distraught to tell officers what had happened and had to be sedated at the hospital, said Sgt. Edward Wheelis of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division.

Police are investigating the drowning, which is the fourth this summer involving San Fernando Valley toddlers and back-yard pools or spas. Three children, ages 11 months to 2 years, drowned and another 18-month-old toddler recovered.

Los Angeles County leads the state in swimming pool drownings of children younger than 4, according to the California Public Interest Research Group. In 1993, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 17 toddlers drowned in pools in Los Angeles County.

“What we see most often is not a lack of attention, but a lapse of attention,” Humphrey said.