Boy, 6, identified in Bridgeview pool drowning

Eric Horng Image
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Boy, 6, drowns at Bridgeview pool
Police are investigating after Michael Duda, 6, of Justice, drowned in a Bridgeview pool.

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (WLS) -- Police are investigating the drowning of 6-year-old Michael Duda of Justice after he was pulled unresponsive from a pool in south suburban Bridgeview on Tuesday.

Michal died Wednesday night at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn. He was at the pool Tuesday as part of a Justice Park District summer camp program.

"I was just in shock that this happened because I've been here for a couple of years now, and I've never seen anything like this," said C.J. Olsen, witness.

Olsen, 10, of Hickory Hills says he was at the pool as lifeguards tried to revive the boy.

"I heard a bunch of the counselors go, 'Go inside! Go inside!' And I looked over, and I saw the kid laying on the ground," said Olsen.

Police say Duda was pulled, unresponsive, from the shallow end of a Bridgeview pool around 1:45 p.m. Tuesday. Lifeguards performed CPR and called 911, with paramedics arriving within minutes. Police say it's unclear how long the boy had been in the water.

"All I saw was the kid just laying on the pool deck with his feet in the water, and the lifeguards were giving him CPR. That's all I saw, and then they told us to get in the showers," said Eric Naglak, witness.

Duda was brought to the hospital with a weak pulse and placed in the intensive care unit.

He was at the Bridgeview pool as part of the Village of Justice summer camp program. Duda was one of 73 kids chaperoned by 10 counselors.

"We have reviewed the videotape taken from the pool security cameras, but they do not show much other than the boy being rescued from the shallow end of the pool," said Chief Walter Klimek, Bridgeview Police Department.

Police are still in the process of interviewing camp counselors and pool personnel. The superintendent of the Justice Park District, which runs the summer camp, declined to comment Wednesday, other than to say that the district is still gathering facts and would have more to say in the next day or two.