Police have identified the 13-year-old twin brothers who tragically drowned in a Miami-Dade lake last week.
Andrew and Alex Paul had just turned 13 on March 1, according to Miami-Dade Police.
The incident happened Friday afternoon at the lake at Arthur Woodward Park off Northwest 99th Street.
Police said a group of kids were playing near the lake embankment when one of the twins fell in. His twin jumped in to try to rescue him.
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Both of the twins couldn't swim and started to drown, police said.
Police and fire rescue responded and both twins were pulled from the lake. They were taken to a nearby hospital where they both died.
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On Monday, neighbors and friends of the twins said their family is grieving their loss.
"Especially the mother, she has a pain I can't describe it," family friend Adelene D'Haiti said.
D'Haiti also called for a fence to be built around the lake.
"Put that place secure for those kids because I don't want more kids to be a victim of that place," she said. "Today it's hers, tomorrow it can be other kids, other parents."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2022 Florida ranked 6th in the U.S. per capita for unintentional drowning deaths among children ages 0 to 17 years of age.
The Florida Department of Children and Families reported 93 drownings in 2022. This year, there have already been 22 drownings in the state of Florida.
It's a pain Dr. Betsy Guerra knows all too well. In 2013, her 2-year-old died in a drowning accident at their home.
"I'm in the pool with my daughter and suddenly somebody asks me 'where's Fofi?' And I couldn't find her and freaked out at that moment and then suddenly I realized she was right next to me but at the bottom," she said.
Guerra turned her hurt into hope and made it her mission to help other grieving families through therapy and speaking engagement.
"Having swimming classes was accessible to me, because I was able to afford them, but I don't know everyone can afford that, but there are programs out there that allow you to receive these services without you having to invest so much," she said.
Gabriela Robles, a lifeguard with the YMCA, said the very first thing you can do to prevent drownings is supervision.
"Second thing you can do is set up alarms or barriers, and third is having your kids learn to swim," Robles said.
Kyan's Kause is one foundation Guerra recommends for swimming lesson scholarships. Swim for Jenny is another program at the YMCA.
"People tend to judge and say 'that’s because you weren’t looking at your kid, that’s because you didn’t take them to swim lessons,'" Guerra said. "But the truth is you don’t know. You don’t know how much families have or haven't done to be able to be safe."
