FORT WORTH, Texas - Four people drowned in a large downtown fountain, one of them an 8-year-old girl and three others, including her father and brother, who died while trying to rescue her.
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About 2,000 people gathered for a prayer vigil Thursday morning, a day after the deaths of the four, who were visiting from Chicago to attend a Sunday school convention.
“Today our city extends our wings to enfold and comfort you,” Mayor Mike Moncrief told the crowd, many of whom held hands and wiped away tears.
The Rev. Gerald Dew, pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, said the man and children had gone to the Fort Worth Water Gardens to play because the pool at their nearby hotel was closed.
The 9-foot-deep pool, called the Active Pool, collects water from several artificial waterfalls. At the bottom, a powerful pump pulls the water through a drain so it can be recirculated, fire officials said.
Dew identified those who drowned Wednesday as Myron Dukes, 35; his daughter Lauren, 8; his son Christopher, 13; and Juantrice Deadmon, 11, who was not related to the other three.
Witness accounts varied on what happened. Apparently, Lauren Dukes jumped or slipped into the water and Deadmon fell in when she tried to reach in and help her. Lauren’s father and brother then jumped in to try to save the girls.
Police officer Tony Moldanado, one of the first rescuers at the scene, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that when he jumped in, the suction “literally sucked the socks off my feet.”
One witness, Christian Tillis, 14, said he saw the girls slip into the water and tried to help.
“I dived in after them. I felt a little-bitty hand, but it slipped out,” he said. “And then I had to get out because I couldn’t breathe.”
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