Children's Safety Zone

KINGMAN – The Mohave County Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case of a baby who drowned while in the care of a foster parent to determine if the death merits criminal negligence charges.

The baby, identified by the Sheriff’s Office as 8-month-old David Whatahomigie, was in the care of Hualapai foster parents. They are not being named by the Miner at this time because charges have not been filed. The couple have two children, ages 12 and 13, and were also caring for a 3-year-old they were seeking custody of at the time of the drowning.

According to the Sheriff’s Office’s incident report, the foster mother told authorities she drew a bath in her Valle Vista home for the 3-year-old and the 8-month-old around 1 p.m. Sept. 25. The baby was a little fussy once in the water, she said, so she went to go retrieve a towel from a hall closet just outside the bathroom.

She said that while she was getting a towel, the phone rang and she went to the bedroom to answer it. At the same time, her fiance came home and she greeted him before they returned to the bathroom and found the infant face down in the bathtub.

According to the report, the foster mother estimated she had been out of the bathroom for three to five minutes. That time frame was corroborated by an older child watching television in the living room at the time.

The parents pulled the baby out of the water and began resuscitation efforts until the ambulance arrived a few minutes later.

The foster mother said the water in the bathtub, which was drained by the parents as the baby was discovered, came up to the children’s belly buttons, which investigators determined to be around 8 to 10 inches. The foster father told authorities he believed the water level was closer to four inches.

The woman had been a foster mother for the Hualapai tribe for more than five years before she was suspended by the tribe following the incident. According to tribal social services officials, she was current on all her training to be a foster parent and had completed the required 60 hours required by the tribe.

The County Attorney’s Office said it does not have a time line on when a decision will be made on possible charges.

A 2-year-old boy pulled from the family pool of a far west Phoenix home has died, according to Phoenix Fire Department officials.

The toddler was at the home near Indian School Road and 113th Avenue with his mother, grandmother and grandfather.

The boy had been missing for 30 minutes before his mother found him in the pool, said Capt. Scott Walker of the Phoenix Fire Department.

Authorities believe the boy crawled through the doggy door to the backyard. No other children were at the home.

Walker said the pool did not have barriers around it and had 3 feet of discolored water. The grandfather performed CPR on the toddler until authorities arrived around 1:40 p.m., Walker said.

The boy was flown to a Banner-Estrella Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead.

PHOENIX – On Monday afternoon, a Valley mother found her 2-year-old son floating in a backyard swimming pool near 113th Avenue and Indian School Road.

Phoenix firefighters arrived just minutes after getting the call, but sadly the little boy died.

“It took the units three minutes to respond. That is three minutes the child will go without oxygen. Let’s prevent that because you can save a life and those initial breaths and CPR truly, truly makes a difference on the outcome of the child,” said Phoenix Deputy Fire Chief Frank Salomon.

To get out that message, firefighters went out in the neighborhood, knocked on doors, and even stopped people in their cars reminding them about the importance of water safety.

“We cannot continue to have our children die in backyard pools. We’re leading the country in this tragedy,” Salomon.

Six children have drowned in Maricopa County, according to Children’s Safety Zone, an organization that works with local fire departments and hospitals to collect statistics on water-related incidents.

“Don’t live in a state of denial, don’t sit there and think this is only happening to other people. It can happen to you. And if you go interview the family this happened to yesterday, they would have never thought that their little 2-year-old would be dead today,” said Salomon.

A 1-year-old girl was taken to a local hospital Monday after she slipped under water while in the bathtub at a home in Peoria, officials said.

A relative was babysitting the little girl along with two other young children near 72nd Avenue and Happy Valley Road, Peoria Fire Department Deputy Chief, Larry Rooney said.

All three children were in the bathtub when the babysitter left to use the restroom. During that time, the baby slipped under water, Rooney said.

The woman found the 1-year-old under water after one of the children yelled for help.

When police arrived, the little girl was awake and crying. She was transported to a local hospital as a precaution but was later released to her mother, Rooney said.