3-Year-Old Dead After Slipping Out of Floating Device and Drowning in Florida Pool
A 3-year-old girl is dead and a 4-year-old girl was in critical condition after the children went under water during a pool party on Saturday in Tampa, Florida, PEOPLE confirms.
Harmony Williams, 3, and Giaonna Chavalier, 4, were at a party at the Wexford Park Apartments pool when they “took off their flotation devices while playing in the water despite not being able to swim,” the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“Witnesses spotted the girls, pulled them from the pool and began performing CPR until EMS arrived,” police continued. “Williams was pronounced deceased at Tampa General Hospital.”
Giaonna was initially in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital but is now “alert, breathing, and expected to make a full recovery,” police said.
No charges have been filed in the incident.
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The incident occurred around 5 p.m. on Saturday, when there were about 10 kids at the party, WTSP reported. The girls slipped out of their flotation devices when no one was looking, according to the outlet.
“I figured it was kids playing at first and then I realized that those screams didn’t sound too right,” resident Addison Vicedo told WTSP, adding that he rushed from his apartment and saw the two girls laying by the pool.
“I noticed that everyone was there panicking and the mother was in tears so I just told myself not to panic because I could do something,’ Vicedo added. “I started giving CPR to [Giaonna] and then I noticed that… she did have a pulse and she would make it.”
Witnesses told police that none of the adults present at the time could swim, according to a police statement obtained by PEOPLE, but they were able to pull the girls from the water.
