A four-year-old boy drowned on Saturday night at the Municipal Pools of the Ribeirinha Zone Park in Baixa da Banheira, Moita municipality.
Details surrounding the tragedy are still being investigated by authorities. However, several details about the case have been revealed over the last few hours.
The father of Gabriel spoke to various television channels to explain the incident.
To SIC Notícias, Gilberto Menezes recounted that he visited the riverside park in Baixa da Banheira to buy an ice cream for Gabriel at the restaurant As Piscinas. Shortly afterward, just before 5 PM, he met two friends in the garden, and in a blink of an eye, the boy ran off.
Local Resident Found Body
“I came to buy an ice cream with him and we were heading home. I met two friends and went to talk to them for a bit. He started running towards the gate,” he said, assuring that he ran after the boy but lost sight of him. “I searched the whole park,” he confirmed.
For about two hours, the father, with the help of locals, searched for Gabriel but to no avail. At around 7:20 PM, the Public Security Police (PSP) were called to the scene.
By 10 PM, after hearing someone mention that the boy had taken a dive in the municipal pools—currently closed for renovations and fenced off—a man jumped the wall separating the park from the complex and found Gabriel’s clothes on the ground.
The waters were murky, but he noticed something in one of the pools and jumped in, eventually confirming the worst.
The man pulled the boy from the water, already showing no signs of life. The police present attempted resuscitation efforts until fire crews and emergency services arrived, but it was too late. The death was declared on site.
According to SIC Notícias, the Judiciary Police (PJ) is investigating the circumstances of the incident, but the possibility of a crime has been ruled out for now.
