We were asked to leave the property, but the pool is at the front of the Los Arcos apartment complex in the 1300 block of Fondren. City of Houston Health and Human Services workers are on the scene, presumably assessing the pool and gate.
Police investigators tell us at around 4:30pm Sunday the 5-year-old boy drowned in the pool. His parents were not with him at the time. They rushed him to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead.
The boy's family is from Nepal and there is a large community of Nepalese people living at this apartment complex. Police indicated there may have been a language barrier in initial communications with them.
Some residents who live there told us the pool was full of children, dozens of them. Sadly, however, it seems they were unsupervised by an adult.
"If the pool is open, you know, obviously it's easy for anyone to walk right in. The tragic thing is parents not being responsible for their children," said neighbor Eloy Saravia.
The pool ranges from 3 to 5 feet deep. It is surrounded by an iron fence with one welded gate and another that is now padlocked.
We don't know whether all of these children hopped the fence or squeezed through to get to the pool or if it was open.
Investigators say they plan to further interview the parents later on today. Police said they plan to review surveillance video to learn more about what happened.
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