A 2-year-old boy, who was rescued from a canal near his home in southwest Miami-Dade, has died, police said on Tuesday.
Miami-Dade Police said that Maxuell Armah died early Tuesday morning after a Miami-Dade Police officer and an off-duty Florida Highway Patrol officer pulled him the boy from the water on Monday. They gave him CPR before Miami-Dade Fire Rescue arrived.
Paramedics continued the effort while he was air lifted to Miami Children's Hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition.
The incident occurred in a residential neighborhood at SW 109th Avenue and 242nd Street.
'When the officers arrived, they were immediately told by the family members that they had discovered the child inside the canal," said police spokeswoman Det. Elena Hernandez.
Authorities don't know how long the child was in the water, but the initial call came in as a missing child. FHP said he was missing for 20 minutes.
FHP said a neighbor of Maj. Sammie Thomas, from Troop E in Miami, knocked on his door and frantically asked for his help in looking for the child. Both officers were searching for the child, when a security guard spotted what looked like tennis shoes in the water.
The boy was floating face down near the edge of the water, where they jumped in and took him out.
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"I was hoping and praying. I was hoping and praying," said Thomas."Immediately, I went to the lake figuring that if a child is missing, the first place that I would want to check is the lake because it's a big body of water," Thomas said.
"We got a faint pulse and the child coughed," Thomas said. "I was acting like a human being. Saw someone in need, and I was going to do everything I could to help the child," he said.
"We are just using all our efforts making sure we to cover all angles of the investigation," Hernandez said.
She added that foul play was not suspected at the moment.
