By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
A six-year old Providence boy drowned Sunday at City Park in Warwick, and while police are investigating, they are treating the death as accidental.
Jamir Stewart was found in three to four feet of water by city firefighters and civilian volunteers who formed a line, walking through the water, some time after he was reported missing at about 5:30 P.M., said Mayor Scott Avedisian in a news conference Monday morning in the Warwick police station.
“This is a devastating time for the family of this young boy,” said Avedisian, who offered the sympathy and condolences of the City, its police and fire departments to the parents, Skyla Araujo and Wilbert Stewart III. He said police would lead an investigation.
“We don’t see any criminality”, in the boy’s death, said Warwick Police Chief Colonel Stephen McCartney.
Avedisian said two lifeguards on duty at the time, who are college students, followed protocols established by the Red Cross, calling police and firefighters. They were reassigned to administrative duties and new lifeguards were assigned Monday morning to the city-run beach at City Park.
Col. McCartney said police were also investigating reports that family members of the victim threatened the lifeguards.
“There was a great deal of emotion… I hesitate to use the word, but I have to be honest, there were threats being made against city employees,” while firefighters administered CPR to the boy.
“I am concerned about some of our city employees’ safety at this point,” said McCartney. He said police had yet to speak with the boy’s family members. “We certainly want to deal with a great deal of deference to the family here in their hour of bereavement.”
