Over 50 People Form Human Chain in Attempt to Save 6-Year-Old Detroit Girl Who Drowned
A 6-year-old girl has died after swimming at a lake in Detroit on Memorial Day, according to authorities.
The young girl, a Detroit resident, was swimming in Kent Lake at Martindale Beach in Kensington Metropark around 5:30 p.m. Monday when the incident occurred, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said.
One witness, Emylea Darrah, told NBC station WDIV-TV that around 50 people formed a human chain in order to try and rescue the child.
The victim was found underwater around 6:20 p.m., according to the Metro Detroit News' Instagram page.
The girl was rushed to Providence Hospital in Novi, per WDIV-TV, where officials said she was later pronounced dead.
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The Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority Police Department, which oversees Kensington Metropark, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
Dozens of bystanders joined the effort to rescue the young girl from the water. Darrah told WDIV-TV she "was pretty impressed" by the number of people willing to "make this human chain to walk through the water to try and find this little girl."
Describing the scene, Darrah said, "A lot of cops started showing up, a dive team showed up, they had a police drone up there and then they had maybe, like, 50 or so people form a human chain."
She continued, "They all linked arm in arm and they were all walking through the beach where they thought that she might have been over by."
Footage shared by Metro Detroit News on Instagram appeared to show officials on carts clearing a path through a crowd of people as a trio of rescuers rushed a stretcher down the shoreline.
Another witness, Dominique Springer, told ABC station WXYZ-TV that the girl appeared to be "lifeless" when she was found and put on the stretcher.
"It's sad," Springer said, adding that the situation "brought tears to my eyes. I literally cried tears."
Witness Greg Krisher said bystanders had to help free an ambulance that had gotten stuck on the beach.
"So we all banded together and tried to push and get the ambulance out," Krisher told the outlet.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post on Monday that it has taken over the investigation into the drowning "at the request of the Metroparks police."
Police told WXYZ-TV that they have interviewed the girl's parents.
