FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A 2-year-old has died after the child drowned in a Fort Lauderdale waterway.
Officers responded to reports of a missing child near the 700 block of Southwest Fourth Court at around 10:05 p.m., Tuesday.
The child, identified by family as Cormel Bullock, was found floating in the water under a bridge near the New River, close to Cooley Avenue. Police officers pulled the child from the water and performed CPR.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded to the scene and transported the child to Broward Health Medical Center.
The child was in critical condition at the time of transport but was later pronounced dead.
Surveillance video from a nearby boat at Cooley’s Marina captured the toddler walking alone up to the water’s edge just after 9 p.m.
Donald Govan said he was on board his sailboat just feet away from where the little boy fell in.
“It looked like he went to go play with the ducks,” he said. “I saw all the police, flashing lights and everything outside. I haven’t been able to sleep since. It’s heartbreaking.”
Tina Miller was at the park with her family when she was approached by a woman frantically searching for the toddler.
“She asked me, ‘Did you see a little boy?'” Miller said. “She was like, ‘He’s a little boy. He’s missing. He just ran out the house because the door was unlocked.'”
She said she did what she could to help, including performing CPR until officers arrived.
“That could have been my baby. He didn’t know no better,” Miller said. “Something just told me to go look. We had our flashlights and everything. There was more people looking, too, and we happened to just walk under the bridge, and when we walked under the bridge, my husband said he found him. ‘That’s him right there.’ He found him.”
The boy’s family has asked for privacy while they grieve the 2-year-old’s death.
Police said they continue to investigate the incident.
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