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Subscribe to RSSPolice believe the drowning deaths of twin 4-year-old boys in a north Texas swimming pool were accidental, Arlington Police spokeswoman Cheryel Carpenter told msnbc.com.
The father of Mark and Luke Nguyen called Arlington police around 10:30 p.m. after finding his boys face-down in the pool behind their grandmother’s home. It was still warm outside from a day that had reached triple digits.
The boys’ mother, Huong Nguyen, told wfaa.com that her husband and sons were checking in on her mother-in-law because she has diabetes.
Carpenter said the father's brother-in-law was also at the home.
Within minutes, the boys apparently slipped away to the pool, Carpenter said, managing to breach a black iron fence around the perimeter of the pool. She said police do not know if the gate was latched.
The father found the boys unconscious in the pool. He jumped in, pulled them out and administered CPR while waiting for paramedics. The boys died en route to the hospital.
The parents, who also have a 1-year-old child, face no charges.
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Tragic...
Agree, I feel so sad for the Parents and Grandparents.
I feel bad too but come on not one but two four year olds and you don't keep track of them (and you own a pool). It does not seem this is the fault of the parents but I'm not cutting any slack to the person who was supposed to be watching them. Both kids you loose track off, no way.
and at 10:30 at night. No reason for the four years to be up at that time.
Never let your non-swimmer kids out of your sight when visiting a house with a pool!
NO one, but NO one, should ever let a child out of their sight if they are anywhere NEAR a body of water.
This kind of thing happens all too frequently because people are not vigilant enough.
+ +
Both twins drowned, how tragic for the family. Woudn't you have heard atleast a splash or a shriek? Something doesn't seem right but I hope that I am wrong.
You definitely need to keep your mouth shut.
Actually it happens all the time. For some reason, when children are drowning they often don't make a sound.
I agree with beadles... keep your mouth quiet!
Drowning has been repeatedly dubbed the silent killer and with good reason. Even in adults. I was a lifeguard for a few summers and drowning does not look the way you might expect. Check this out:
http://www.lifesaving.org/download/Drowning_Silent_Killer.pdf
I promise the ending of a life via drowning is not like the stuff you see on tv with someone's head about water yelling "Help!"
I don't think beadles has to keep his mouth shut. He's just wondering - not accusing. Actually he's asking. Have you not read all the stories lately about parents killing their kids. Of course it's going to pop in our heards. He didn't say anything bad - must have been what you thought.
RIP little brothers. Way too mean children dying lately.
*
heardsheads*
meanmanynot beadles - mattycat - time to get off this computer. No good news anyway.
This makes me sick, but I can't help agree with mattycat. It doesn't seem right. It was 10:30 at night for starters, then you have not one but two boys slip away and no one notices because it did say there was a brother-in-law there as well, and like mattycat said, no one heard anything? And the two little boys went to the pool out of all the other things they could have gotten in to? I do pray I am wrong, but working in the EMS field we do tend to see stuff like this and it not be an accident.
That's horrible that happened to that family. I doubt that it was intentional, and was probably an accident. They probably were busy talking and got distracted. When you have toddlers, you have to watch their every move. My prayers go out to that family.
Those expecting fowl play are probably very wrong and are pouring salt on this families wounds. Children are fast, very smart, and when it comes to water- silent. There are numerous stories of children falling in around a dozen adults at BBQs with no sounds and drowning in seconds. Fences are nothing but an obstacle, children have pushed chairs and toys up to crawl over. Toys by the pool are a HUGE risk to children wanting to be near. When you treat the pool as a toy children will never think of it any different. Take a look into Infant Swimming Resource and what it teaches and you will learn some amazing things about pool safety, risks, and statistics. Bet none of you thought "hey maybe they got out through the doggie door"-one of the most frequent ways this happens... no instead you automatically jump to the fault of the parents who are suffereing terribly now.
For heaven's sake, keep your hands off the keyboard. You people coming up with all sorts of possible foul (not FOWL) motivations are sick.
AF - Thank you for that info on ISR. I have two toddlers and my babysitter has a backyard pool so I get worried about that. I just emailed my local ISR instructor and plan on starting them ASAP. This article just made me feel a sense of urgency to get them trained, just incase. It only takes a second and I would never forgive myself if one of them ever drowned. I can't imagine what the parents and grandparents of these kids are going through. RIP little ones.
One of my children nearly drowned at a public pool. In this case, other kids had pushed him under and were on top of him. He remembers looking up through the water at the lifeguard who just sat there. Finally in a surge of probably adrenalin, he pushed the boys off of him and made it to the surface. ISR sounds like a life saver all parents should be aware of and have access to.
My heart goes out to the family of these little ones. It is the worst nightmare of a parent and the pain of loss is overwhelming.
ALL OF YOU!!! Lay Off MATTY!! There's always a possibility of wrong doing....even something as gross negligence. Alcohol, Drugs, leaving unattended for long period of time. The list of family causing children harm continues to grow. Casey Anthony, The lady drove her kids into the water in the Carolinas. The lady that drove her van full of kids of the pier in NY.... the list goes on an on. MATTY'S not the sick one. You guys are just the naive ones who say - "Everything seemed fine to me. He/She was such a nice person....always friendly....blah..blah..blah!
When I was 15 yrs old, I was swimming in a public pool (huge) there were two boys about 9 or 10 yrs old about 3 feet off the side of the pool that were struggling to get to the side.
They were literally trying to pull on each other and one by one, they were inadvertently dunking each other out of panic.
I instantly swam under both of them and pushed them quickly to the edge from which they were able to grab the side and roll out. They were coughing and crying.
I looked over at the female lifeguard and she was lying on one of the lounge chairs with her eyes closed getting a tan. I thought that if I wasn't at the right place at the right time, those boys most likely would have drowned.
Unfortunately for "these" boys, this may be the case (tugging at each other panicking). My heart goes out to the family and especially for these poor kids who must have went through so much panic and pain through their last few minutes on earth.
Here in NJ, it's the law to have your pool surrounded by a fence with a gate that can be locked to prevent these things. My wife is adamant about checking to make sure our pool gate is always locked.
We have experienced children drowning in our own neighborhood and it's always a child that doesn't live where the drowning took place. You can never be too cautious.
I just had the same thing happen with my 4 yr old twins at our pool. They just started swimming and I was sitting right beside them. And NO they didn't make any sound as they were sinking each other. I don't let my kids out of arms reach when they are in water. I watched them just for a second to give them a little scare to make them respect the water since they both started getting a little too brave. It only takes a few minutes for a child to drown. Also, my mother in law has a pool and I was always afraid to visit her house because of the pool. Other people would always leave the darn gate open especially other kids. At times I would put my kids to sleep in the back room while visiting with family..I could never visit because I was too afraid of the kids waking up and sneaking in the pool without anyone seeing them. Pools are my nightmare! May prayers go out to this family. No family should have to go thru this pain..especially with 2 little angels.
This is one of my biggest fears! I have a pool and got a "Katch-a-Kid" net that tightens over the pool so kids can't fall in. I have a 3 year old am a maniac about putting that net on after swimming, speaking firmly to kids about the pool, and even though it takes time and sometimes feels silly when I know we're going to swim the next morning. I also have my girl in a "My Pool Pal" swim flotation suit at all times when pool is uncovered. Someone was over swimming yesterday and after hearing this, I ran down and put the net on (before my 3 year old came home from camp). This poor father will never get over this nightmare. He was just visiting his mother, and 4 year olds are clever and fast.
Lezlee- as a mother I feel your fear..every parents worse nightmare is to loose their child. I watched my parents go through it and no one should ever have to bury their baby. PLEASE look into Infant Swimming Resource. My baby (a year this week) went through at 8 months and it was such an INCREDIBLE and enlightening experience to see my child empowered and capable of saving himself...priceless gift we gave ourselves. We dont' even have a pool, or any water near by...but pools are just the most commonly thought of risk..tubs left with water, toilets, coolers, beach buckets..any water is a risk. If you have toys around your pool PLEASE remove them. If you have a doggie door check it's locking capability and if your home alarm goes off if something goes through it when set.
So tragic. It really disheartens me that society can be so cruel and quick to assume the worst. This family is probably going through enough hell without the assumption that this was intentional. That's what investigators are for. It's not until the "the shoe is on the other foot" that people realize how cruel and hurtful this can be. Accidents do happen you know. After all we're all only human. My prayers and thoughts are with this family and so many others that have to endure these tragedies and deal with people passing such harsh judgement with unfounded assumptions.
What a terrible loss to have both children taken and at such a young age. One can never be prepared when this happens to a family. Once more, it is such a wise investment to get pool covers, even though so many people dismiss them as not necessary because they think having a fence around their pool is sufficient. If they have no children, nor grand-kids and have no children living near their home, that might be fine. But if you have kids, or any relatives who do, then automaticly get the pool cover. It is not worth the risk should one of your children or grandchildren happen to be the exception in managing to climb over or get past the gate or fence, and therefore falling into the pool and dying.
Accidents are never expected, that is why they are called accidents. If people knew these incidents were going to happen, then they would plan and be ready for them. Same for those who have their homes burn down, burglars break in, cars get involved in crashes or any other number of life altering events. It is always better to be prepared in case life throws you a curve, then to not be and suffer the tragic consequences. You will never regret having taken proactive steps acting wise, but you will forever regret being foolish and unprepared when you knew there was a possibility and ignored being ready ahead of time. Regardless how little you thought the risk. Too often when people realize the danger is upon them it is too late to take preventive measures, for the destruction is upon them. Sadly most of us firmly believe it will never be us, but always someone else horrible things happen to. Yet I think it will happen to you, and you to me. We both are usually correct in the long run.My thoughts and prayers are extended to this family during the difficult days ahead. That they may find strength and peace as they seek healing.
I refuse to judge the parents until there's proof they were not vigilant on purpose.
It's awful that they lost not one child but two. The heartache they must be facing is immense and I feel for them.
Very very sad! My heart goes out to the families! I cannot imagine losing two children at once! So terrible! Prayers to the family!
I can't imagine losing 1 child let alone twins. Sorry this had to happen
RIP kids
this is just horrible, but i can understand people being supisious, in this day and age, when their is so much evil in the world. casey antony
, susan smith, and too many other DEMON mother baby killers to mention. I hope that it is what the news reported and nothing else. But I would never own a pool even if i could swim, without a fence, 6 ft. or higher, with locked automatic covers over the pool, and some kind of motion sensor enstalled. I would hate to have this on my conscience for the rest of my life. I hope they never tell the grandmother what happen to her grandbabies, while checking on her, she would stroke out, I know i would, and wouldnt want to continue living also. R.I.P . sweet baby boys.
is it me or do people just not do the "attentive parent" thing anymore? i mean i see people my age (mid 30s) with young children playing with their smartphones completely unaware of their childrens' actions. If you have toddlers, you cannot be distracted. no excuses you just cant. When I was a toddler, i couldn't take three steps without my parents being right behind me. I was fast but i couldnt have run out of the house, into the yard, and breach a steel fence into a pool without my mother at least being 4 steps behind me. Parents in 2012 seem to be too busy worrying about their identity and their facebook and other nonsense to (verb form)PARENT!
bobg, what i s"attentive parent" thing? Grew up on farm land, 8 foot irrigation ditch near by. We ran the fields all day. I guess to be an attentive parent you should just put your young children in a play pen. That is what they did in my childhood days and my daughter's.
My heart goes out to the family. May you find peace within.
I guess you live out there where wholesome values still sort of previal. Out here in civilization(not saying that to imply it's a good thing) you walk through areas like fast food restaurants, playgrounds, wherever mothers and their young congregate and mom isnt watching the kids, she's updating her status on her phone. the kid could be climbing into a storm drain, by the time mommy knew, the kid would be floating upside down for ten minutes.
Oh, I can Not imagine. I think I wouldn't want to live after that. Better not to have loved than to lose them like this. So sad. Life is so fragile. People get distracted so easily and kids don't always mind do they.
Having a young one myself, I am heartbroken by this story. I cannot imagine the pain this family feels, nor the panic and fear these babies felt in that pool. I will say this makes me soooo happy my little one is learning to swim at a very young age - such a valuable skill - one that may save your life some day. Obviously these two were too young for that to be the case but learning water safety (including instilling fear and knowledge about not approaching water alone in a child) and knowing how to swim early on is important.
If you have a pool teach your children to swim, if they don't know how then put up the guard fence for kids. It's common sense which for some reason seems to be short in Texas.
Americans just get smarter and smarter. RIP children.
A fence may not keep four years boys safe. They climb and climb, especially twins. What one won't think of the other will.
So very sad. I cannot even imagine losing a child, let alone two. And drowning is one of my worst fears. I am heartsick after reading this.
I see and hear of these tragedies all of the time. I am also from an NYPD (and USMC) family, so my father was trained plus, unfortunately, suffered the tragedy of investigating the scenarios around the death of innocents. Kids and animals tore him up. Pools, boats and weapon safety were big issues for him. When I was househunting, he would come in to look at the finalists structurally before we paid for a certified engineer and, of course, he knew what I wanted. He nixed every house with an IGP that wasn't safe-e.g. 3 feet from the sliding doors into the kitchen. I believe he made up faults to spook us away from anything with an IGP unless it had "James Bond"-like protections, and even then...He kept reminding us if we had kids we would live to regret that IGP because of safety issues, not just the enormous maintenance time and costs, extra property taxes, and why not take advantage of living by some of the country's finest beaches (Long Island, incl Hamptons)?
Sadly, these past few days, we have had sooo many stories, publicized and not, of pool drownings, boating tragedies (3 kids died horrifically July 4th not far from here), and cop's kid dying after someone, whether kid or visiting friends, getting hands on a weapon.
When I was an animal rescuer, I nixed adoptions of certain animals (e.g. certain high-demand rescue puppies) when I did the home inspections because the home didn't even have a pool alarm!!! And there were young kids there! And the pool was just 3 feet from the sliding glass door! They have all kinds of devices out there for pool safety and these people, like many "not me-I am too careful"-type people, had not one of them! They have special nets and sooooo many other safety devices. Nothing beats being a careful adult and having eyes behind one's head but kids (and 4 legged kids) can and will get into ANYTHING no matter how alert you are. So, if you don't take precautions to work around this reality of life, THEN you are wayyy beyond negligent.
I know that sounded kind of like blaming the victims so I apologize. Just upset about this recent spat of tragedies. We have all been in scenarios thinking "won't happen to me" and then it does so no one is immune. Even the boating tragedy sounds like some moron (probably drunk) was speeding by and caused the enormous wake that capsized that yacht off Long Island. However, we all cannot just stay home wearing bubble wrap so yes, things can happen to all of us. I just hope when kids and any other vulnerable people and living beings are concerned, we try harder.
Watch your kids every step. Get my point?
Four year olds are too young to be left unsupervised. Like the four year old that toppled the tombstone on himself the other day.