Nearly two weeks after a 13-year-old died following an incident at Shenandoah Park, enclosed slides at City of Miami parks are being shut down pending further assessment, and the slide at the center of the investigation has now been boarded up.<\/p>\n
NBC6 was at Shenandoah Park Wednesday night as city crews cut and installed wooden boards around the playground slide where Olvin Cabrera became trapped on Sept. 25.<\/p>\n
The move comes after Miami Commissioner Rolando Escalona called for all enclosed slides across the city to remain closed until they undergo additional safety reviews.<\/p>\n
Earlier Wednesday, NBC6 observed dozens of children playing at the popular Miami park before crews arrived to block access to the slide.<\/p>\n
The developments come as Cabrera’s mother, Estefania Valladares, continues to search for answers about what happened to her son.<\/p>\n
“It is as if nothing happened,” Valladares said in Spanish. She told NBC6 that an investigator visited her home Tuesday and informed her that the bolt where her son became trapped had been replaced.<\/p>\n
According to Valladares, investigators told her the bolt was protruding from the slide and that it was the location where her son became trapped.<\/p>\n
NBC6 reached out to the City of Miami to confirm whether the bolt had been replaced, but had not received a response by Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Valladares said her son became trapped inside the slide until a good Samaritan pulled him out.<\/p>\n
She said the man who helped her son later told her Cabrera’s shirt had become wrapped around his neck.<\/p>\n
Cabrera was transported to a hospital, where he later died.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe mother of a boy who died after he became trapped inside a slide at a Miami park is speaking out.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The exact circumstances surrounding his death remain under investigation, and city officials have not publicly confirmed Valladares’ account.<\/p>\n
NBC6 also found Shenandoah Park underwent a renovation project in 2024 that cost more than $800,000 as part of a city initiative to replace and upgrade playgrounds. The improvements included new playground equipment.<\/p>\n
NBC6 contacted playground equipment company KOMPAN seeking information about the incident. In a statement, the company said it was deeply saddened by the tragedy but could not comment on the specific circumstances. KOMPAN added that it remains committed to safe play environments and “will cooperate appropriately with relevant parties.” <\/p>\n
Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins said the city will review the findings of the investigation and determine whether additional safety measures are necessary.<\/p>\n
“When we get all of the results of everyone who’s evaluating what’s happening, we will take any necessary steps that are needed to make sure that this can never happen again,” Higgins said.<\/p>\n
For Valladares, the investigation is about more than finding answers about her son’s death.<\/p>\n
She says she wants to know how the tragedy occurred and whether another child could end up in the same situation.<\/p>\n
As of Wednesday night, the City of Miami had not answered NBC6’s questions about why the slide was boarded up nearly two weeks after Cabrera’s death or whether the action was directly connected to the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly two weeks after a 13-year-old died following an incident at Shenandoah Park, enclosed slides at City of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-421891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}