Toddler drowns in Garden Grove
A 1 1/2-year-old girl drowned and her 2 1/2-year-old cousin was fighting for his life Wednesday after they wound up in a murky backyard swimming pool in Garden Grove, authorities said.
The mothers of the children found them floating in the pool, said Lt. Travis Whitman, a spokesman for the Garden Grove Police Department.
The names of the children and their parents were not released.
Whitman said that shortly before 3:15 p.m., officers were called to a house in the 14100 block of Deanann Place, where they found the two women, who are sisters, holding their unconscious children.
“They were hysterical,” Whitman said, adding that the toddlers had been found in the pool after disappearing for about 15 minutes.
Whitman said he didn’t know who lived at the house.
Both children were taken to hospitals. The girl was pronounced dead at an unknown hospital; the boy was listed in critical condition at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, Whitman said.
At least one of the adults was at the house at the time, he said.
The pool is surrounded by a fence with a gate that can be secured, Whitman said, but “I don’t know what the condition of the gate was at the time the kids entered the pool.
“We are investigating this as a casualty, a noncriminal tragic accident. It’s a horrible situation.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
