{"id":2273,"date":"2025-10-14T20:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2273\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T20:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:21:09","slug":"parents-sue-bronx-day-care-after-1-year-old-drowned-while-caretaker-was-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2273\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents sue Bronx day care after 1-year-old drowned while caretaker was cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grieving parents of a 1-year-old girl who apparently drowned at a Bronx day care while a caretaker was busy cooking<\/a> promised Tuesday that they\u2019ll sue the center for negligence.<\/p>\n

Toddler River Wilson died just steps from her family\u2019s home in an above-ground pool at the home-based Ana\u2019s Butterfly Garden on Aug. 1 while an oblivious 47-year-old caretaker apparently spent 20 minutes preparing food, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur beautiful baby girl was taken from us when she was only 20 months old,\u201d River\u2019s dad Ifiok Wilson told reporters at a news conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want each of you to imagine burying your baby and then having no answers about what happened to her,\u201d said grieving father Ifiok Wilson, whose 1-year-old daughter River drowned in a daycare pool last August. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

Wilson claimed that he and his wife haven\u2019t gotten answers from law enforcement or officials<\/a> in the 75 days since his daughter\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want each of you to imagine burying your baby<\/a> and then having no answers about what happened to her,\u201d Ifiok said at the conference, held at the Police Officer Hilario Serrano Playground \u2014 one of River\u2019s favorite spots.<\/p>\n

River\u2019s mom, Ima Wilson, was too overcome with grief to speak, and wept during the gathering.<\/p>\n

River Edima Wilson, 20 months, with her parents, Ima and Ifiok Wilson, in happier times. GoFundme<\/p>\n

The day care, and owners Ana Feliz Gonzalez and John Guzman will be named in the forthcoming suit, according to the family and their attorney.<\/p>\n

The operators have not been charged with any wrongdoing and couldn\u2019t be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here today to let you and everyone know that we will not give up the fight for justice for River,\u201d Ifiok said. \u201cWe will not rest until we are answered and have accountability for River\u2019s death. We deserve that. River deserves that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there had been proper adult supervision, River would be alive today,\u201d congressman Ritchie Torres said. \u201cIf there had been thorough and complete safety inspections, River would be alive today.\u201d Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

The tot apparently fell into the pool, police sources previously said \u2014 but there\u2019s never been an official explanation of how the tragedy happened, attorney James Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, the cowardly day care owners hide behind the gates of their building, almost thumbing their noses at these parents who they see out there day after day at that memorial,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to start with the people we know are responsible. We\u2019re going to start with these despicable actors who had a duty to watch River, to supervise River, to care for River.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to start with the people we know are responsible. We\u2019re going to start with these despicable actors who had a duty to watch River, to supervise River, to care for River,\u201d said the family\u2019s attorney, James Williams. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

US Rep. Ritchie Torres said that River was \u201ccatastrophically and fatally failed by a broken system,\u201d citing the lax oversight from both the allegedly inattentive worker and the state Office of Family and Children\u2019s Services.<\/p>\n

Torres, who introduced a bill called \u201cRiver\u2019s Law,\u201d to ban swimming pools at residential day-cares, said the state office only deemed the pool unsafe after River\u2019s body was pulled from it.<\/p>\n

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OFCS discovered on Aug. 4 that the pool had inadequate barriers, despite years of inspections certifying its safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Torres lamented the office as \u201ctoo late and too slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there had been proper adult supervision, River would be alive today,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIf there had been thorough and complete safety inspections, River would be alive today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo parents should have to beg for answers about their child\u2019s death,\u201d dad Ifiok Wilson said. \u201cNo parents should be forced to grieve in the dark, waiting for a phone call with answers that never comes. James Keivom<\/p>\n

The OFCS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo parents should have to beg for answers about their child\u2019s death,\u201d Ifiok said. \u201cNo parents should be forced to grieve in the dark, waiting for a phone call with answers that never comes. Yet, this is the misery that my wife and I live everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grieving parents of a 1-year-old girl who apparently drowned at a Bronx day care while a caretaker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,2882,325,57,2883,9,24,63,129,131,130,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-2273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-child-endangerment","10":"tag-day-care","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-negligence","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-the-bronx","17":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","18":"tag-the-bronx-news","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}