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3-Year Old Drowns After Wandering Into Canal

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CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) -- One child is dead and another in the hospital after wandering into a canal in Coral Springs.

Coral Springs Police said the mother was showering in their apartment located at 8550 NW 40th Street on Wednesday.

She said when she got out, she saw the sliding door was open and rushed out to find her 2-year old and 3-year old boy.

That's when she began screaming, getting the attention of a neighbor.

"So I go and I'm like mam are you alright and she's like no 'my baby, my baby is in the water, my baby,' That's all I had to hear. I ran," said neighbor Seleena Aranguren.

Her husband called 911.

The missing 3-year old's mom was hysterical.

"She's like 'my baby,my baby's in the water so I go towards the water. The water was still, still as can be. I didn't see no air bubbles, like no life to the water," said Aranguren.

The mother had pulled her 2-year old daughter from the canal.

"She was in the water. She went in the water. She was soaked," said Aranguren.

Emergency operators told neighbors not to go in the water.

Three Coral Springs officer arrived in an instant and jumped into the canal fully clothed.

"Their instinct was jump in," said Aranguren.

 

In less than a minute, an officer found the child and brought his lifeless body to the canal's bank.

"It looked like a fish out of a water," said the neighbor, in tears.

Paramedics were able to work on him as both children were rushed to Broward Health Coral Springs.

Unfortunately, the 3-year old boy died. Authorities said the 2-year old girl will be fine.

"Children anywhere in Florida really need to know how to swim," said Coral Springs Fire Rescue Chief Mark Moser.

Grief-stricken friends arrived at the home late Wednesday as others wondered what might have been.

"We couldn't see. We couldn't see. We couldn't see," said the neighbor.

The water was just too dark to see the child beneath the surface.

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