4-year-old Dies After Accident In Fayetteville Pool

A 4-year-old boy died early Monday at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock after an accident over the weekend at the pool in Fayetteville’s Barrington Parke subdivision, police said.

“On June 30th, we received a call over to the community pool at 1879 Barrington,” said Sgt. Craig Stout, Fayetteville Police Department spokesman. “There was apparently some type of event going on there with a church group and we had an original report that a child had drowned.”

The boy, identified as Patrick Huang, died after being taken off life support at 2:48 a.m., said Stout.

Stout said authorities were called to the pool at 7:52 p.m. Saturday. The boy, not wearing any floatation devices, had been playing in the shallow end, Stout said.

The boy was with some of his family at a church function being held at the site, he said.

Huang did not know how to swim and was sitting poolside with his feet in the water, police said. Other children were playing in the pool, including Huang’s 8-year-old sister, when the accident occurred, police said.

Stout said the boy’s sister found him on the bottom of the shallow end in three feet of water.

“It was again, a large gathering there of people, the child was last seen at the shallow end of the pool, his parents were there, you had a lot of people coming and going, I guess he just got into water that was too deep for him,” said Stout.

There apparently was no foul play in the drowning, Stout said.

“In this case here, it appears to be nothing more than just a tragedy,” said Stout. “For the fact that again, you had a lot of people here, a lot of kids that were swimming, things of that nature. I think this child may have just gotten lost in the shuffle.”

The Barrington Parke Property Owners’ Association website notes that lifeguards are not provided at the pool.

The group holding the function was the Grace Chinese Christian Church of Northwest Arkansas, Stout said. The church is at 301 South Duncan Ave.

Shelby Heflin, who lives in the neighborhood, said the 1,400-square-foot pool at Barrington Parke is gated and for use only by members of the property owners’ association.

A member of the association can hold events at the pool and invite people who don’t belong to the association, Heflin said.

Huang and his family are not members of the association and do not live in the neighborhood, Heflin said. They had been invited by an association member as participants in the church function, he said.

Heflin said he not a member of the church group but happened upon the scene as paramedics were assisting the boy.

Barrington Parke is near Crossover Road and Mission Boulevard.

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