A toddler drowned in a backyard pool of a home in San Diego's Point Loma neighborhood on Wednesday, police said.
Officers responded to a call from a woman who reported that a 2-year-old was drowning in a pool in the 1600 block of Chatsworth Boulevard at around 3:15 p.m., according to the San Diego Police Department.
Although officers and medics attempted CPR, the child was pronounced dead, SDPD Officer J. Perales said.
Police say the relationship between the woman who reported the incident and the toddler is not yet known.
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Neighbors told NBC 7 on Thursday that the incident happened at the 2-year-old boys' grandparents' house. The boy went missing just moments before a frantic search and the terrifying discovery in the backyard pool.
"For a child his age, two minutes was all it took," said Denise Tremaine, a neighbor and close friend of grandparents Kelly and Eric.
She says the couple put in the pool a month ago and that they weren't at home at the time. The toddler somehow escaped the attention of three adults and three other children who were there, according to the neighbor.
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Denise Tremaine said the grandparents, so distraught over the toddler's death, asked her husband, Rob, to empty the pool. He used a pump and a garden hose to drain it on Thursday. The water flowed through the neighborhood.
"She just wanted that gone. That’s all I had. I was happy to do it," Rob Tremaine said.
Denise Tremaine began teaching children how to swim after her nephew drowned.
"He hit his head, and he was at the bottom of the pool, and no one noticed. They were not able to revive him, and he was surrounded by adults," Denise Tremaine said.
It is an emotionally charged reminder of how quickly pool fun can turn into a pool catastrophe.
"It tells you how much you need to stress water safety," Denise Tremaine said.
SDPD's Child Abuse Unit is handling the investigation into Wednesday's incident, according to the department. This is standard protocol for incidents involving young children.
No other details were immediately available.
