3-year-old drowns in pool
Simone Sebastian, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
A 3-year-old boy drowned in a
backyard swimming pool at his San Jose home, possibly after slipping
out of an unlocked backdoor while grown-ups in the house were
distracted, police said Monday.
Investigators
believe that Noah Martinez walked out of the backdoor of the home where
he lived with his mother on the 3000 block of Oldfield Way, then
crawled through one of three holes in a wood fence surrounding the
swimming pool, said police spokesman Sgt. Steve Dixon.
Residents
of the house where the boy's mother rented a room found him unconscious
in the pool and called police at 8:06 p.m. Sunday.
"His
mother thought that he was in another room," Dixon said. She and other
adults in the home "looked all over the house. When they couldn't find
him, they looked outside."
Noah
was taken to Regional Medical Center of San Jose, where he was
pronounced dead at 9:21 p.m, according to the Santa Clara county
coroner's office.
Dixon said police might recommend to prosecutors that charges be filed in the case, but he would not discuss specifics.
E-mail Simone Sebastian at sisebastian@sfchronicle.com.
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