PATASKALA, Ohio — A 10-year-old boy with autism died after being pulled from a pond in Pataskala on Friday.
The incident happened near his home on Shelter Cove Drive.
“The neighbor across the street came yelling upfront, yelling ‘can anybody swim?’” said neighbor Marvin Sims.
The boy was drowning in a retention pond behind some of the homes.
“Once I got to the bottom of the hill I saw a kid's body floating in the water. I jumped in swim to him, flipped him over, kept his head above water, and we brought them back to shore, and we begin doing chest compressions,” Sims said.
Sims said he and other neighbors took turns giving CPR.
“We tried hard extremely hard to revive him and get him to take a breath, but his body was just filled with water,” Sims said.
Pataskala police said the boy has walked away from his home before. His parents gave them a call within six minutes of the boy leaving the house.
“They took every precaution in the world to make sure he was safe and okay, however, this is just a tragic thing that happened,” said Detective Sergeant Gary Smith.
A section of the pond is fenced off, but some portions of it are not blocked off from the water's edge. Sims said he and other neighbors have started a petition to have a fence put in.
“I know the community is trying to get together with the HOA hopefully to get a fence put up,” he said.
10TV reached out to the City of Pataskala to find out who is responsible for retention ponds. The city's administrator said after a developer goes through a process, the HOA is responsible. We reached out to the HOA's president to see what is being done about the pond, but we waiting to hear back.