Summerville police investigating near-drowning of 1-year-old

Summerville police are investigating a near drowning after a 1-year-old was found unresponsive in a pond Tuesday.

Police arrived at Farmington Village Apartments behind the Main Street Walmart on Farm Springs Road and saw someone performing CPR on a small child on the bank of a pond as staff members and concerned citizens gathered nearby, an incident report states.

The child’s father was kneeling at the child’s feet, according to the report.

The man told police he was getting ready to head to Charleston while his child was playing downstairs. The man headed upstairs for minute, according to the report. When he came back down, he said, the infant was missing.

The man told police he drove to the front office to alert staff members, who later found the child in a pond, the report states.

The infant was taken to Trident Medical Center for treatment, the report states.

The child was listed in critical condition Wednesday, Capt. Jon Rogers said.

Rogers did not identify the father Wednesday, and police redacted all witness names from the incident report.

Rogers said he did not release the names to prevent the identification of the child.

That decision, however, violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act, S.C. Press Association attorney Jay Bender said.

“That’s not a legitimate reason to withhold information in an incident report,” Bender said. “The law doesn’t protect a child who is the victim of a near drowning. … If the child had been arrested there would be a reason to withhold that information, but there’s no legitimate reason to withhold the name of a victim of an unfortunate circumstance.”

Rogers said no charges have been brought in the case.

Reach Christina Elmore at 937-5908 or at Twitter.com/celmorePC.