HALEYVILLE - The death of an 18-year-old male, who had been swimming at the Haleyville city pool on Thursday, May 29, has resulted in a stir of social media comments, which Haleyville Police sought to bring under control at a press conference Friday morning.
“The rumor is we had a male who had gone unresponsive and passed out in the pool, in the water, which is not the truth,” said Haleyville Police Chief Rodney Lewis, who conducted the press conference with Police Investigator Austin Lewis at the City Hall courtroom.
“When he passed out or went unresponsive, he was sitting on the concrete,” Chief Lewis stated. “He was not in the pool. He was all the way out.”
The cause of the 18-year-old’s death has not been determined, but his body has been sent for an autopsy at the Alabama Department of Forensic Science, Birmingham, police confirmed.
“Right now, it’s still under investigation, to see what possibly is the cause of death,” Lewis stated.
“What we were told is that he was sitting on the side of the pool and just fell over,” he noted.
Police are in the process of obtaining video surveillance taken at the city pool, which is located at the Neighborhood Facilities Building, to have a better idea of what happened, Lewis added.
After the male fell over, emergency 9-1-1 was notified, and the pool manager and a lifeguard immediately started to administer CPR, but the male remained unresponsive, Lewis said.
A Regional Paramedical Service ambulance came on the scene, parked at the gate to the pool area, and the male was loaded into the ambulance for transport to Lakeland Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
“I don’t think the pool had anything to do with it,” Lewis stated. “I don’t think it was a swimming accident.”
Police deny ongoing social media rumors
Police are squashing rumors being circulated on social media that the male’s death was drug related.
“We can’t say for a fact that is what it was. It could have been an underlying health problem he was dealing with that we didn’t know about,” Lewis continued.
Police are hoping to have the preliminary results from the male’s autopsy within a few days after the accident, according to Lewis.
The male, who was at the pool with a group of other youth, had been swimming pool, then had got out, and had sat down on the concrete when he fell over and was unresponsive around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29.
At the time of incident, about 100 people of different ages were at the pool and were naturally very upset over what had happened, police said.
“From what I understand, it was just a group of friends that had met down there to have some fun and I guess to kick off summer,” Lewis said.
Police had cleared people from the pool area until the male’s body could be loaded into the ambulance, after which time they were allowed to go back into the pool area to retrieve any belongings before the pool closed for the day at 4 p.m., Lewis explained.
“This is a traumatic incident to a child 10, 11, 12, 13 years old or really anybody,” the chief stated. “We as a city are going to do everything we can to protect the people.”
Social media posts noted that Haleyville Police did not do the public right by allowing such things as illegal drugs in that area, which Lewis stressed was not true.
“There were no illegal drugs there at the time of the incident,” noted Lewis.
The police chief also confirmed they had not received any past complaints of drug use at the city pool area.
Police are having to deal not only with the traumatic situation but also with the rumors and false social media posts that have circulated since the incident, Lewis emphasized.
“Once I had learned of some social media posts last night, particularly Facebook, I immediately went on our page, the PD page, and explained that there was an incident where a young man had gone unresponsive and was transported to the hospital,” Lewis said.
“The rumor was everybody there (at the pool), their lives were in danger,” Lewis continued. “I put on (the social media post) that no one else’s life, as far as we knew, was in danger.”
Rumors were that the male had died of the drug fentanyl, creating the danger that if others had been in the pool with him, they may have come in contact with the drug, police said.
“That is the furthest thing from the truth that you could get,” Lewis emphasized.
Police offer condolences to family
Police issued condolences to the youth’s family.
“To the family, they are in our prayers,” said Lewis. “It’s just a tragedy, and you hate to see it in your community.”
Police issue warnings about social media
Austin Lewis then issued a special warnings on using social media.
“They need to be mindful, before they get on Facebook and make posts and comments, that there is a family grieving. They have just lost a child,” Austin stated.
Chief Rodney added, “I can give out all the warnings. I can get on social media...on the news and all and put out warnings ever day about social media, and you are still going to have those two or three people that think they know more than we know.
“I posted to try to hush some of the talk about 8:30 last night (May 29)...that nobody was in danger, and just a quick thing on what happened, and you still have people that get on there and say they hope he wasn’t on fentanyl.”
These types of comments fuel further comments that often get out of hand, police indicated.
“The sad part is some of the rumors that have been started are from people who were not even there,” Lewis stressed.
Others commented on social media that those who experienced the situation should be able to obtain a police report on what happened, the chief continued.
“No, we just don’t hand out police reports,” Chief Lewis stated. “There are steps we have to go by to protect people’s privacy.”
Police offer counseling for those affected by tragedy
Chief Lewis recommended that anyone who was actually at the pool and witnessed the incident is urged to come by the Haleyville Police Department if they need to talk to someone.
Police commended the pool manager and lifeguards for doing everything they were supposed to do in such a situation.
Plans were to reopen the pool on Friday, May 30, for normal business hours, according to police.
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