Father drowns in community pool

07:23 AM EDT on Monday, June 21, 2004

By SILKE RIBLE / 6NEWS

A man celebrating Father’s Day with his family drowned Sunday in a south Charlotte pool.

It happened around 1 p.m. at 5654 Via Romano Drive.


6NEWS
A man drowned Sunday at this pool on Via Romano Drive in south Charlotte.


Police said a 35-year-old man was at the pool with his wife and two children when he suddenly sank below the water.

Justin Roberts was among a group of people who tried to save him.

"You always feel you should have done something,” he said. "We all thought he was going to be ok … I rode by and heard the scream.”

Witnesses said no one noticed he had gone under until it was too late. By the time two men pulled him out and began CPR things began to get worse.

"I guess he slid down over there by the three foot sign,” said one witness. "They would roll him on his side and then he would start breathing again and then he would take some of that water back in so they would have to roll him back to do CPR again and get it out of him.”

Justin said he heard the man's wife yelling that he had problems with seizures, making the CPR even more difficult for those desperate to help, and those trying to comfort his wife.

A witness said the wife was saying, “What am I going to do with out him?”

He said he just held her and told her it was going to be ok.

EMS rushed the man to Presbyterian Hospital where he was later pronounced dead -- a tragedy Justin said he wishes could have prevented, especially on Father's Day.

"I couldn't do anything, but we all have been talking about how we can comfort them and that's what's going to be important now,” he said.

Roberts said he and his neighbors are going to try and take up a collection to try and help out the man's wife.