HICKORY, N.C. (WSOC/CNN Newsource/WKRC) — A North Carolina family is mourning after a 7-year-old boy drowned in a pond. As WSOC reports, the boy may have died trying to save his friend.
The family of Abel Friday-Williams said he went to Bruce Meisner Park in Hickory on Thursday with a friend and an adult. Deputies say Friday-Williams and his friend had found their way to a nearby pond and waterfall off the park property and may have been unsupervised at the time of the drowning. Friday-Williams was pulled from the water around 7 p.m.
Deputies are now investigating reports that the boy went into the water to help his friend.
A North Carolina family is mourning after a 7-year-old boy drowned in a pond. As WSOC reports, the boy may have died trying to save his friend. (WSOC/CNN Newsource)
“It breaks my heart because he saved his friend and lost his [life],” Friday-Williams’ aunt, Brianna Sledge, told WSOC.
Hickory city leaders say the area is part of a wastewater treatment pump station. The city says it did not build the path leading to the falls, and it’s not intended for public use.
Now, Friday-Williams’ family wants to warn others of the hidden dangers of the pond and waterfall where he drowned. Tara Rink told the outlet she was at the falls recently when a man jumped in to save a little girl.
“I assisted in pulling them out because there’s no way I could have gotten them out, because the rocks are too slick. It’s nothing but slime. It was terrifying,” she said.
Comment with Bubbles
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
City leaders say they will look into whether changes need to be made to the area.