Jun 27, 2008 10:14 am US/Central
Man Drowns In Lagoon At St. Xavier University
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
What started as a fun night among college students has ended in tragedy, as a young man drowned in a lagoon at Saint Xavier University on Chicago's South Side. CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports.
At about 9:15 p.m., divers pulled the young man's body out of the lagoon, about an hour after emergency workers got the first call about a man in the water.
Leonel Ibarra Jr., 18, of the 4500 block of South Hermitage Avenue, had gone into the retention pond and swam toward a fountain at the center to retrieve a volleyball that had gone in.
Assistant Deputy Fire Commissioner Bob Hoff was among the first on the scene. "We can surmise that he swam pretty far, maybe 200 to 300 feet and he got very, very tired. And it was silty down there. It was silty and he could have gone down in that area."
Three plainclothes Calumet District tactical officers who were also among the first to respond took off their weapons and radios, and jumped into the lagoon to help the teen, who had been playing volleyball and swam into the water to retrieve the ball, according to police Lt. Timothy Bickham, assigned to the Morgan Park District when the incident occurred.
"Three officers just heard the call, they were close and they went over there,'' said Bickham. "They jumped into the water and they were in there for about 20 minutes."
The officers, who were "shaken up'' after the incident, were unsuccessful in finding him and were transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn to be checked out after they "drank a bunch of the water. The looks on their faces [officers] were just heartbreaking,'' Bickham said.
University spokesman Joe Moore said, "The individual in question was not a member of the university or a student or actually affiliated with the university. There wasn't actually anything going on tonight on campus, so we believe maybe some … kids were playing volleyball and the person in question followed the volleyball into the pond and drowned."
Officials did not believe that suction from the fountain played a role in the young man's death. His family was at the scene Thursday night, but they were too upset to discuss the tragedy.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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