PINEWOOD, Fla. – Police are investigating after two twin teenage boys died Friday after drowning in a pond in Miami-Dade’s Pinewood neighborhood, authorities said.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue divers pulled a pair of twin brothers who didn’t know how to swim out of a pond, but the boys later died in the hospital, police said.
Police said the two brothers were with a group playing on an embankment at Arthur Woodard Park, at 1220 NW 99 St., when one of them fell into the lake. The other then jumped in to help him.
A child who was at the park had a cell phone and called 911, police said. After quickly pulling the first teen out of the pond, three divers continued their search through heavy weeds for the second teenage boy, who took them longer to find, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
Witnesses recorded video as first responders pulled one of two teenage brothers out of the water at the park.
As paramedics desperately started chest compressions in an attempt to save the first boy’s life, witnesses continued to watch in horror.
“They found him, he was tied up from the legs, that lake has like a lot of weeds,” said one man.
Fire rescue personnel took both teenage boys, who were in critical condition, in two separate ambulances to North Shore Hospital. A doctor pronounced one dead first. The other was in critical but stable condition, but his condition deteriorated, and he later died, according to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
“This is a very, very sad event where you have a group of children playing at a park, and for this to happen,” said Detective Luis Sierra, a spokesman for the department.
After the rescue, police officers remained in the park to interview witnesses, including other children who were with their parents. The teenage boys used to live in the nearby Colonial Acres Mobile Home Park, just east of the pond, near the Twin Lakes area.
The community around the park where so many children play were left stunned and asking themselves how the boys ended up in the like in the first place.
“If they get pushed in and they don’t know how to swim, did we fail our kids? Should we have more programs where kids learn how to swim?,” asked one Miami-Dade resident.
Neighbors told Local 10 News that the lake is anywhere from 15 to 40 feet deep and the lake bed is filled with weeds.
Police said it is unclear if the weeds contributed to the death of the two boys.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editors Alexa Velez, Joyce Grace Ortega, Luis Castro, and Louis Wilson contributed to this report.
Local 10 News Digital Journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this report.