{"id":1023900,"date":"2026-08-25T21:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T21:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1023900\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T21:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T21:29:15","slug":"i-could-barely-sleep-neighbors-heartbroken-after-3-year-old-child-with-autism-drowns-in-retention-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1023900\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I could barely sleep\u2019: Neighbors heartbroken after 3-year-old child with autism drowns in retention pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Neighbors said they are heartbroken after a 3-year-old girl with autism drowned in a retention pond<\/a> in Northwest Jacksonville on Monday.<\/p>\n

A woman said her outdoor camera caught footage of a child walking down the street in the middle of the night and making their way to the retention pond where they drowned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just terribly sorry that this happened to y\u2019all, and thoughts and prayers go out to y\u2019all and hopefully y\u2019all can lean on each other during this difficult time,\u2019 Hunter Weavil, a neighbor, said.<\/p>\n

Other neighbors said the pond plays a large role in the community and people often come out to walk their dogs and fish, but they said they\u2019ve never seen anyone swim in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad to hear about what happened, just thinking about it last night I could barely sleep,\u201d Darrin Holloway said.<\/p>\n

According to the Florida Department of Children and Families, at least five children have drowned in the state in 2026. The deaths prompted Councilman Reggie Gaffney Jr. to host a community meeting to come up with ways to prevent more children from drowning. They talked about gates and signs to help prevent the drownings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart goes out to them, my heart aches for them, I could just give them a hug right now, I want to let them know that I\u2019m doing everything possible to prevent this tragedy from happening again and I\u2019ll make sure my colleagues do everything possible as well,\u201d Gaffney Jr. said.<\/p>\n

Reggie Gaffney, Jr. holds community meeting after 3-year-old child with autism drowns in retention pond. (Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Weavil said he just had a child and after the drowning, he is going to be extra careful about safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she needs a lock up high so they can\u2019t reach it or some sort of sound system,\u201d Weavil said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen those done where it\u2019s like once it disconnects from each other and it\u2019s extremely loud so probably something to that extent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Neighbors said they are heartbroken after a 3-year-old girl with autism drowned in a retention…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1023901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,4471,279832,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1023900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-child","tag-child-drowning","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117158278977480236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}