Brockton youth, 17, drowns in Abington

A 17-year-old Brockton youth sneaked into a closed man-made swimming hole in Abington yesterday and drowned in the cold water, becoming the area's fourth drowning victim in as many days, authorities said.

The teenager, identified by hospital officials as Jamelle Harvey, was with friends and attempted to swim from one end of the pond to the other, police and neighbors said.

''He briefly went underwater, and then they lost sight of him," Deputy Chief Christopher Cutter told reporters during a press conference last night at the Abington Police Department.

Divers spent about an hour searching for Harvey at the roughly 100-yard-wide swimming hole called Island Grove. They found him in water about 12 feet deep, Cutter said in remarks broadcast on local television.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate Harvey, whom officials later pronounced dead at Brockton Hospital, said Rich Copp, a hospital spokesman. Neither police nor hospital officials gave the time the drowning occurred.

Harvey's family could not be reached for comment.

Debra Yanoolis, who lives across the street from the decades-old swimming hole, said it had recently been drained and was in the process of being refilled.

The site was slated to open in two weeks, neighbors said.

Gates block three entrances to the swimming hole, one on Lake Street and two on Park Avenue, Yanoolis said.

Though membership is required to use the pond, people often sneak in to swim, she said.

''It's a terrible tragedy," she said. ''I just don't know if I'll ever go swimming there again. I've been swimming there for years and never had a problem."

Another neighbor, Bob Little, ran to the site when he saw the commotion last night, worrying that his 15-year-old daughter had sneaked into the pond.

During swimming season, a police officer is usually stationed in the area from dusk until dawn to make sure no one enters illegally, neighbors said. But with Island Grove closed, Little said, police had not stationed an officer there.

''It's a parent's nightmare," he said.

On Sunday, Karim Jaber, 3, of Wrentham, drowned after he and his twin slipped through a gate and into an above-ground pool in their family's backyard, police said. Jaber's brother survived after their grandmother, who had briefly lost sight of them, pulled them from the pool.

Three hours after police were unable to revive the toddler, Guerry Mortel, a 16-year-old freshman at Somerville High School, drowned off Sandy Beach, part of Upper Mystic Lake on the Medford-Winchester line, where he had gone swimming with friends, police said.

The youth, a cashier at Stop & Shop in Somerville, may not have known how to swim, relatives said.

On Friday afternoon, Bauder Altoveli Lopez, 21, of Lynn, died after he chased a soccer ball into Flax Pond. Two friends playing with him tried to save Lopez and also struggled in the water, but were saved by police.

In Hillsborough, N.H., a 9-year-old boy drowned Sunday afternoon after getting stuck in rapids near Gleason Falls. Local police did not release the boy's name.

Drowning is the second-leading cause of accidental death of people between ages 15 and 44, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers. Two-thirds of those who drown never intended to be in the water.