Two-year-old Brockton girl drowns in neighbor’s pool

By Matt Rocheleau and Jaclyn Reiss, Globe Correspondents

A two-year-old Brockton girl drowned Sunday night in her neighbor’s above-ground pool, Brockton Police said.

The girl, whose family lives at 92 South Leyden St., wandered over to her neighbor’s house at 84 South Leyden St., where she went to the backyard and climbed the approximately three-foot ladder to the pool, police said.

“It seems to be that she wandered down into the yard,” said a Brockton Police officer who spoke on condition that his name not be used because he is not authorized to comment.

No one else was at the pool at the time, the officer said. The family who owns it was inside their house.

Police responded to the 911 call around 8:30 p.m. The girl was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Police are unsure how long the girl was underwater. There is no visible fence around the pool.

Natalianna Terry, 15, and her mother, Tamiko Terry, 33, were among the first to arrive to try to help the girl.

Another neighbor had pulled the girl from the pool, they said. The Terrys, who live next door to the pool, started performing CPR.

A lot of water came up, said Natalianna Terry. She said she is certified in CPR and studies health services at her vocational high school.

“I prayed to God that it was going to work,” she said.

But the girl did not respond.

“She was lifeless, blue, no response, no pulse,” Tamiko Terry said.

Tamiko Terry said that about 10 or 15 minutes before the girl was pulled from the pool, she and her teenage daughter had seen, from their kitchen window, the toddler holding on to the edge of the pool and kicking the water with her feet.

“I thought, maybe someone is watching her from the porch,” Natalianna Terry said.

The Terrys said the pool is covered and its ladder is pulled up most nights.

A woman at the house where the drowning occurred said she was the sister of a man who lives there.

“They don’t want to say anything,” she said. “They’re devastated.”

An investigation will be carried out by Brockton Police and State Police.

Police declined to comment whether any charges could be filed.