St. Clair County boy apparently drowns in family’s pool
A 23-month-old boy apparently drowned in his family’s backyard swimming pool near Belleville Wednesday morning, the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department said.
Bryce W. Coleman was identified as the victim, St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said.
The child was found unresponsive in the in-ground pool by his mother, according to a sheriff’s department news release. He was taken to Memorial Hospital in Belleville, where he was pronounced dead at 10:41 a.m.
Deputies were called about 9:50 a.m. to respond to the 8100 block of Lunceford Lane off Imbs Station Road. They found family members performing CPR on the child and assisted with that until an ambulance arrived.
“The child was sleeping in a room with his mother, and a grandmother was also in the house,” the sheriff’s department reported. “The mother awoke and could not find the child, and the grandmother, in another room of the house did not see him either. They began looking inside and outside the house for the child and the mother discovered him unconscious in the pool.
“While the sheriff’s department continues to investigate, preliminarily this incident appears to be a tragic accident where the child was able to exit the house on his own and make his way to the pool, which was not separated from the rest of the back yard and the house.”
Dye said he expects an autopsy to be conducted.
Earlier this summer, the coroner’s office investigated the apparent drowning of a 1-year-old boy in Cahokia in July.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 3:15 PM.
