THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 18, 1996 TAG: 9606180304
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 84 lines
A 10-year-old boy who could not swim apparently drowned Monday night in a borrow pit near his house in the Alexandria section of the city.
Kenneth M. Santiago, of the 1800 block of Pittsburg Landing, had been playing with two friends in a neighbor's yard when he apparently went out into the water and lost his footing, said Mike Carey, a police spokesman.
The boy, who would have been a fifth-grader at Tallwood Elementary School next fall, had been playing at a friend's house across the street from his home.
Police, paramedics and firefighters were called about 4:45 p.m. but were unable to find the boy.
Virginia Beach rescue divers pulled his body from the water about 5:35 p.m., about six minutes after divers began their search of the water that neighborhood children call simply ``the pond.'' His body was found in about four feet of water.
Several neighbors also pitched in to help with the rescue.
One of them was Virgil Calderon Jr., 15, who heard people screaming for help from someone who could swim before he headed back to the water.
``I ran into the water,'' he said. ``I thought I saw bubbles. I kept pointing over there. But the police were there already, and I couldn't do anything.''
Calderon said the water was so muddy he couldn't see.
Dan Schreder, 26, a Navy SEAL who lives nearby, followed firefighters to the pond after he heard the siren.
He rode in a boat searching the water and then got in the water and swam with a pole looking for the little boy. He and the others were called out of the water as soon as the dive team arrived.
``It was frustrating,'' said the neighbor who has been a SEAL - a trained diver - for six years. ``The water is an evil place. It will sneak up on you.''
Neighbors gathered in their yards to talk Monday after hearing about the boy's death. Children played basketball in driveways, and others rode bicycles.
Outside her home, Jackie Skinner, a third-grade teacher at Crossroads Elementary School in Norfolk, said the drowning hit especially hard because the boy was about the age of the children she teaches.
``You know the children are always in that water, and they don't seem to be supervised,'' she said.
Last summer, she called police when she saw children out in the middle of the pond floating on a makeshift raft. Police came quickly, scolded the children and talked to their parents. One parent even seemed angry that she'd called, she said.
In the winter, Skinner has seen children walk out on the barely frozen pond that reaches depths of seven to 10 feet.
``I've just been dreading it since I moved here,'' she said. ``I always keep one hand on the phone when I see them out there.''
She wasn't home to place any phone calls this time.
The pond behind her home looked serene by late afternoon light. Ducks swam toward visitors. Lawn chairs and barbecue grills stood nearby. Children bounced on a trampoline in a yard on the other side.
But Max Braddy, another neighbor with three children of his own, said something has to change.
``There should have been signs back there saying `no swimming,' '' he said. ``It's a shame something like that had to happen. They were just playing. In the wrong place, at the wrong time.''
The boy's death is the first apparent drowning in Virginia Beach this summer but the second in the area within days, authorities say.
On Friday, Tiffany Lynnette Williams, 14, of the 200 block of Dunn St. in Chesapeake, apparently drowned after falling out of a boat on an outing with friends.
Authorities warn that man-made bodies of water in the area can be deceiving. Borrow pits start out shallow and drop off quickly. The bottoms are sometimes filled with old tree trunks, authorities say. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Kenneth M. Santiago was a rising fifth-grader.
Photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Dan Schreder, a neighbor of the Santiago family, is a Navy SEAL - a
trained diver. He helped search for 10-year-old Kenneth. Here, he
holds his 19-month-old son, Drew. ``The water is an evil place,'' he
said. ``It will sneak up on you.''
KEYWORDS: DROWNINGS ACCIDENT GENERAL FATALITY
BORROW PITS by CNB