7-year-old boy drowns in Charlotte neighborhood retention pond

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A child rescued from a southwest Charlotte retention pond has died. We’ve learned that little boy was just seven years old. Now neighbors are raising concerns about how easy it was for that child to access the pond, which is at the bottom of a steep hill, just behind several homes.

Charlotte Fire crews responded to Lady Bell Lane around 6:30 Wednesday night, in a neighborhood just off Steele Creek Road. Investigators say another child saw the boy go into the water, on a camera, and alerted an adult. That adult called 911.

Crews arrived about five minutes later, with dive teams going in the water. It wasn’t until 30 minutes later that the boy was pulled from the water. He was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead around 7:45.

Now neighbors are raising concerns about how easy it is to access that pond. Resident Danielle Augustin says, “They need to put up a fence. They need to do something that will prevent kids from getting in there. Especially after this. There’s definitely something needs to be done. The community is definitely willing to sign a petition, create a petition, something to get that done.”

Neighbors say they believe the little boy went in the water to try to catch tadpoles in a shallow part of the water, but ended up in a deeper part of the pond.