3-Year-Old Girl Drowns in Backyard Pool

A 3-year-old girl drowned Sunday in the backyard swimming pool of a home where she was staying while her mother was at work, police said.

Lina Nguyen’s parents--Long and Xinh Nguyen--left her in the care of a friend at the home in the 1100 block of North King Street while Xinh Nguyen went to work, said Lt. Robert Chavez of the Santa Ana police. The little girl was found floating in the pool at 3:36 p.m.

Officers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Lina until paramedics took over and rushed her to Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Chavez said the incident is under investigation. It was unclear Sunday how long the little girl had been missing, how she managed to make her way into the pool and who was home at the time of the drowning.

A neighbor on King Street said the couple who live in the house have at least three children of their own. The pool is unfenced, the neighbor said.

The Nguyen family moved to an apartment in Anaheim about three weeks ago, a neighbor there said. They also have an infant.

Lou Roche, 28, who lives downstairs from the Nguyen family, said they moved from Santa Ana. He described Lina as shy.

“She always seemed scared to say anything,” Roche said. “When you’d say ‘Hi’ to her, she’d look at her mom, like, ‘Is it OK to say something?’ ”

Drowning is the leading cause of death for children younger than 5 in California, statistics show.

Last year, Orange County led the nation in child drownings, with 15 deaths and 20 near-deaths. The number of child drownings has declined this year, Orange County Fire Authority officials have said.