Toddler fighting for his life after accidentally falling into a swimming pool at a Byram daycare

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - A one-year-old is fighting for his life after almost drowning at a Byram daycare. Byram Police said the little boy accidentally fell into a swimming pool while at Little Blessings from Heaven Childcare and Academy Center on Friday.

“The police academy doesn’t train us for this,” said Byram Police Chief David Errington. “It’s emotional. It is mentally challenging to us just trying to comprehend what happened and how it happened.”

On the front door of the building are two notes stating that the Mississippi Department of Health has ordered the daycare to close its doors until further notice.

“At exactly 3:53 p.m. Friday, our dispatch center gets a 911 call from a staff worker at the Little Blessings Daycare,” Errington recalled. “This 911 call is [from] a female worker. She was hysterical on the phone, saying she had an unconscious one-year-old and needed an ambulance as soon as possible.”

Workers at the daycare started performing CPR on the one-year-old until paramedics arrived, who then rushed him to the hospital.

“Earlier in the day this was just dispatched as a medical call, so upon a supervisor responding to the hospital, he was notified by doctors that this has possibly been a drowning at the daycare,” said Errington. “At that point, we begin our investigation.”

Investigators spent the weekend at the daycare gathering evidence and trying to piece together exactly what happened and how the toddler ended up in the pool. Right now, the chief said there are still more questions than answers.

“As far as the details of everything that happened and how it happened, we’re still gathering all of our evidence, such as using our photos that we took at the scene. We still have interviews we need to conduct,” the chief said. There’s still lots of evidence to be processed and video surveillance to go through as well, so we’re still putting all of our facts together at this point.”

Once the investigation is complete, Chief Errington said the department will then hand everything over to the district attorney’s office to decide whether criminal charges will be filed in this case.

None have been filed against anyone working at the daycare at this time. WLBT reached out to the attorney representing the daycare owners, Warren Martin. He said he does not wish to give a comment at this time.

We will continue to follow this developing story and bring you more details as they become available.

Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2022 WLBT. All rights reserved.