A mother and child who died in an apparent double drowning in Brampton over the weekend have been identified as 38-year-old Elizabeth Solomon and five-year-old Emmanuel Akrong Jr.
The two were found unresponsive in a backyard pool at a residence on Hilson Court, in the area of Airport Road and Countryside Drive, at around 8:15 p.m. on Saturday.
Paramedics rushed the boy and the woman to hospital without vital signs and they were pronounced dead a short time later.
The father and husband of the victims said he was inside the house taking a nap at the time of the incident.
“I just woke up to see them in the pool,” Emmanuel Akrong told CTV News Toronto. “I run down to them. I took my son out all the time screaming for 911, for my neighbours help.”
Akrong said that neither his wife nor his son knew how to swim. The pool had been drained, but was filled with rainwater at the time.
Family friend and pastor John Danquah said that the mother fell into the deep end of the pool.
“Either she slipped, I can’t say, or something happened and she fell off because I think where she fell it was deep into the pool.”
Neighbours recall seeing paramedics put someone on a stretcher and try to pump their chest.
An autopsy was postponed until today and investigators have not yet determined a cause of death.
