5-year-old wanders from playground, dies after he’s found in water, Florida cops say
A 5-year-old boy drowned after he wandered from a playground in Florida, deputies said.
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said the boy was at a park with his family when he went missing Nov. 13. He was found in a body of water.
“Deputies entered the water and immediately began life-saving measures in an attempt to save the boy’s life,” the sheriff’s office wrote Nov. 19 in a Facebook post. “Tragically, the child was declared deceased shortly after being transported to Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orange County.”
Deputies used a K9 to search for the boy after receiving a report that he disappeared from Senses Park in the Kissimmee area, a roughly 20-mile drive south from Orlando.
“Contact was made with the father, who notified us that while he was tending to his younger child, he had briefly lost sight of his 5-year-old son,” the sheriff’s office wrote. “The father told deputies his 5-year-old was diagnosed with autism.”
Senses Park is “all-inclusive playground that caters to children on the autism spectrum.” It has playground structures that are separated to allow kids to have “less intense social play experiences,” according to the Osceola County website.
After the boy’s death, deputies ask anyone with information about the case to call them at 407-348-2222.
“Children with autism often display a combination of behaviors, including wandering, impulsivity and either a love of water or extreme fear of water, that increases their risk of drowning,” the Consumer Product Safety Commission wrote on its Pool Safety website.
The sheriff’s office didn’t immediately share additional information with McClatchy News on Nov. 20.
