3-year-old boy drowns in neighbor’s koi pond while playing outside

MCDONOUGH, COUNTY, Ill. (WGEM/Gray News) - Authorities say a 3-year-old boy was pronounced dead at an Illinois hospital after he drowned in a neighbor’s koi pond.

According to McDonough County Sheriff Nicholas Petitgout, deputies with his department, Bushnell-Prairie City Fire Department and Lifeguard Ambulance responded Friday to a location in Prairie City for an unresponsive boy.

Petitgout says the 3-year-old was playing outside with his siblings and neighbor children when he went missing.

A neighbor who was working in the yard found the boy face down in his koi pond. The sheriff says the neighbor pulled the boy out and immediately began CPR. He called 911 while working to save the boy.

Petitgout says dispatch received another call from the boy’s mother to report the 3-year-old missing.

McDonough County Coroner Eric Jameson says the boy was pronounced dead at 5:24 p.m. Friday at McDonough District Hospital.

The McDonough County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services are investigating the incident.