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Aug 072012
 

GILBERT, AZ – A five-year-old boy died Sunday after being pulled from a community pool in Gilbert .

The accident happened Saturday at a neighborhood pool near Baseline and Val Vista.

Gilbert police tell ABC15, Clayden Hammond was found face down in the pool. The boy died at the hospital.

“He was still as a statue,” said Bella Padilla who tried to save the boy’s life.

That was was one of the first signs that caught the attention of seven-year-old Bella.

She said the five-year-old was under water for three or four minutes.

“I was like dad, he’s scaring me. I just kept coming closer and closer. My dad went over there and nudged him,” said Bella.

“He was hovering just above the surface of the pool, face first, lifeless. I didn’t get a response from him so I knew he wasn’t with us,” said Bella’s father Louis Padilla.

It was at that point Padilla, a decorated war hero, knew he had to move quickly.

“I brought him to the side of the pool and right away we started doing CPR on him. We never got a heartbeat, he had no response. He had a lot of water in him,” said Louis.

According to the Gilbert police department, Hammond was visiting from New Mexico. He came in town to visit his grandparents.

Witnesses tell ABC15 his grandparents were in the pool when the incident happened.

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