Child found unresponsive in pool at Butler Beach vacation home

Jacksonville, FL — A two-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition after he was pulled out of a pool Tuesday at a vacation home on Butler Beach in southern St. Johns County.

Tuesday night the St. Johns County Sheriff’s office was trying to figure out how it happened.  Fire and rescue officials said they were called to ta home on 4th Street.

The 2-year-old boy was taken to Flagler Hospital in critical condition after he was found unresponsive in a pool, officials said.  The boy was then flown to Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville.

The boy and his family are vacationing in the area from Ohio.

Neighbor Billy Hennesy had just gotten home when "I heard a young child say 'he's drowned, he's drowned!'"

Hennesy says, “I bee-lined it to the fence and, like I said. I was either going over or through it.”

Hennesy says “but all the paramedics showed up… so I knew… I put two and two together. From what I heard from the pool tech the baby was already at the bottom.”

"You step out that sliding glass door, take two small steps and you’re right down in the water there… there’s a deep end and shallow end. It’s over my head at one point, Diane said.

Diane says "I think I’m going to go take my grandson and get his lessons right away now beause we have them at the beach and running in the backyard and you just don’t want that to happen ever."

At last report the child was still in critical condition. SJSO says their investigation into this incident is ongoing.