8-yo dies in swimming pond
By Mark Stevens
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WEST BEND, Wisconsin (WDJT) — A trip to a local beach turned tragic this weekend, after an 8-year-old boy drowned in a West Bend park.
The Regner Park swimming pond was closed Sunday as police continued investigating the Saturday drowning.
One man who helped find the boy — identified as Isac Rivera Ramos — wishes he could have done more.
“It’s very surreal that something so peaceful, so beautiful, can be so dangerous,” said Michael Owen who found the boy in the pond. “There was an announcement from the lifeguards that they were missing a child, so my wife and I jumped up right away and started searching.”
He said after the lifeguards ordered everyone out of the water, they searched around the pond for the boy. When they linked arms and began searching in the water, he asked if he could help.
“As we were in the water coming around, a lady picked up his shoes and said these are his shoes right here, and I said he must be here if he’s here,” said Owen.
As Owen’s group passed by the fifth swim marker, they found the boy.
“A woman named Jessie bumped into something, and I said you got him, she grabbed him, pulled him up, and it was him,” said Owen.
They took the boy ashore and started CPR. The lifeguards took over, followed by the police.
The boy was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Owen wonders if they should have started searching the water sooner.
“I’m still thinking you only wish you could have done more,” said Owen.
And as a father, he feels the pain.
“I’m so sorry for the family, this is just tragic,” said Owen.
This is not the first drowning at Regner Park. A 6-year-old drowned in the pond five years ago.
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