Sister charged after 5-year-old brother nearly drowns in pool as she sits nearby, police say
POOLER, Ga. (WTOC/Gray News) - The adult sister of a 5-year-old boy who nearly drowned in a Georgia pool is facing charges of cruelty to children and abandonment following the incident.
Police say a 5-year-old boy was found unresponsive April 13 at the Hamilton Grove Pool in Pooler. He was resuscitated and taken to the hospital, WTOC reports.
The boy’s older sister, 24-year-old Mikayla Jimya Dixon, is facing charges in connection with the incident. The charges include first-degree felony cruelty to children, abandonment of a dependent child and false statements or writing to conceal facts, which are a misdemeanor and felony, respectively.
She was arrested the day of the incident by Pooler Police.
The arrest report says responding officers made with a man who was at the pool and noticed the boy drowning. He gave the boy R after realizing he wasn’t breathing. He told officers he didn’t know the child or who the parents were but believed the child was with a woman.
Police say Dixon told them she was the older sister of the boy who nearly drowned. She said she allowed her brother to go to the pool with the man referenced above, whom she said was her coworker. She also said she was not on scene during the time of the incident.
However, police say video footage shows Dixon and her friends sitting in front of the pool with the boy swimming unattended. The boy can be seen struggling to swim then beginning to drown in the pool behind the group, according to the arrest report.
Video shows the boy drowning while unattended for one to one-and-a-half minutes, according to the report. The footage then shows Dixon finding her brother in the left corner of the pool and pulling him out before her coworkers begin R.
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