BLUFFTON — The drowning of a 5-year-old child Saturday afternoon during a birthday party appears to be a freak accident turned deadly, Allen County Sheriff Sam Crish said Monday.
Haiven Hale, 5, of Ada, was swimming with other children in a pond at 6803 N. Dixie Highway just before 1:30 p.m. when he was found unresponsive in the water. Emergency personnel were called to the scene but unable to save him, Crish said.
There were numerous adults sitting around the pond watching the children and trying to keep track of the children in the water but with children going in and out, lost track for a couple of minutes, long enough for Haiven to drown, Crish said.
“They realized one of the children was unaccounted for and people started looking. Someone jumped in the pond and located him, got him out and started CPR,” Crish said.
Haiven was found under a trampoline in the water. He was wearing a life jacket but somehow still drowned, Crish said.
“He somehow got underneath the trampoline,” Crish said. “He just got caught underneath it and had no way to get out.”
Crish said his office investigated the matter but there was nothing criminal and it was expected to be closed as an accident.
“We don’t know, at this point, how he got under it. He was just in there swimming,” Crish said. “This was totally a freak accident. They had the life jacket on him and all the people were there doing the right thing. This is just a horrible situation.”
Haiven and his family were at the home as guests at a birthday party. There were numerous people there and at least 20 children running around in and out of the water, Crish said.
Haiven’s funeral is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hanson-Neely Funeral Home in Ada. Visitation is from 4 to 7 p.m Wednesday at the funeral home.
His obituary said he played on the Red Ada T-ball team and loved monster trucks, dinosaurs and race cars.
A GoFundMe account has been set up at: https://www.gofundme.com/2h99w7rw.
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