A Texarkana teen has died from pool injuries after being airlifted to Arkansas Children's Hospital on Thursday.
Charles Ezekiel Matthews, 14, died Monday morning. His condition was listed as 'critical' Friday.
Matthews, his grandmother and his siblings were at the Foxcreek Apartments swimming pool when his grandmother noticed he was lying at the other end of the pool, unresponsive.
She began screaming for help because nobody in the party could swim. A third party at another complex hopped two fences to get to Matthews. Medics noted an abrasion on his forehead, but at the time, did not know how it happened.
Source: Texarkana police
First I want to say how sorry I am that this happened. It is a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family of this child.
Having said that, I'd like to get out my soap box, and explain how this was totally unnecessary and could and should have been prevented!
I do not know if this child was a resident of Fox Creek apartments or the apartments next door (Chapel Ridge). It does not matter. What does matter is a child has died and the management (both complexes) and most of all the Texarkana Arkansas Police department could have prevented this accident.
I am putting myself at risk by even writing this story. I still live at Fox Creek, and my property has already been vandalized because of the problems here. So I could be forced to move, be physically harmed, or have more of my property vandalized. I am telling it anyway, because I feel so strongly that what happened was an unnecessary tragedy.
I've been a Fox Creek resident for about 2 years now. This is my second summer here. (Other residents say that these problems have gone on for longer than I have been here.) (CR=chapel ridge, FC=fox creek) I will only speak for the time that I have been a resident at FC.
Last summer, CR closed the pool located on their property because the CR residents were vandalizing it. That's when the trouble started. CR residents started coming to FC to use our pool. As you can tell in the pictures posted at the top of this article, this pool is not large enough to support 2 apartment complexes. When too many people are in this pool it becomes dangerous. When these kids come over and nobody is with them that can swim, it becomes deadly! Most of the time they are completely unsupervised.
The Management was called numerous times (by myself and other FC residents). We were instructed to call the Texarkana Arkansas Police dept. and report CR residents trespassing on FC property. So, we did this repeatedly. The TAPD made them get out a few times, but they came back as soon as the TAPD left, and with an even worse attitude than they had before the TAPD was called.
These kids (mostly unsupervised) threw wrought iron chairs into the pool. They stacked them up and tried to jump over them into the pool. They harassed the younger children. They made threats (and carried through with several of them, like vandalizing my property). They laughed in our faces when we reported them. The TAPD didn't do anything! In fact when I pointed out the fact that I paid rent at FC and should be able to use the pool without myself or my kids being put in harms way, the officer (with his hand on his gun) threatened to arrest me! What I said was, "You wouldn't allow someone to break in your back yard and swim in your pool and vandalize your property would you? I don't understand the problem, are you scared of these kids?" I guess he was scared of me!?!
The TAPD said that they couldn't enforce keeping trespassers out unless the FC manager was at the pool when they were called out. She was always too busy to come to the pool. I guess it never occurred to the TAPD to stop at the office and get her. (?) The only thing that ever happened was that FC management closed the pool for the rest of the day. Once again, I pay rent and that includes use of the pool! This was/is not the solution. It seems cut and dry to me, the police ask, "do you live here?" and if they say "no" then the police say, "get out of the pool", and they are banned from FC property. Simple enough!
Another FC resident made pool passes at their own expense and asked if management could pass them out and when the TAPD were called, if the person in question didn't have a pass, they have to leave. Also simple enough!
Myself and several FC residents tried to get a Neighborhood Watch started, but we were harassed and once again had property vandalized, so we had no choice but to drop the whole thing. Even the Neighborhood Watch person at the police station that I was in contact with said, "If you do this, then everyone will know that you are PRO-police and that may cause you problems". Really? We can't even trust the police to help us with Neighborhood Watch? That makes me absolutely sick! This is what I meant when I said previously that I am putting myself in harms way by even blogging about this.
The TAPD officers say, "maybe YOU should move". I say, "Maybe YOU should do your job". This whole thing could have been easily prevented. I've offered several solutions in this blog. Why can't we trust the TAPD to protect us? Are they scared? Now I'll probably be threated with arrest again...
Comments welcome!
Once again, my sympathies to the family of the child that died in the pool. My heart truly goes out to you... I can only hope that you realize now that I wasn't evil, mean, nasty, or racist! I cared more than anybody else!
Matthews, his grandmother and his siblings were at the Foxcreek Apartments swimming pool when his grandmother noticed he was lying at the other end of the pool, unresponsive.
She began screaming for help because nobody in the party could swim. A third party at another complex hopped two fences to get to Matthews. Medics noted an abrasion on his forehead, but at the time, did not know how it happened.
Source: Texarkana police
First I want to say how sorry I am that this happened. It is a tragedy and my heart goes out to the family of this child.
Having said that, I'd like to get out my soap box, and explain how this was totally unnecessary and could and should have been prevented!
I do not know if this child was a resident of Fox Creek apartments or the apartments next door (Chapel Ridge). It does not matter. What does matter is a child has died and the management (both complexes) and most of all the Texarkana Arkansas Police department could have prevented this accident.
I am putting myself at risk by even writing this story. I still live at Fox Creek, and my property has already been vandalized because of the problems here. So I could be forced to move, be physically harmed, or have more of my property vandalized. I am telling it anyway, because I feel so strongly that what happened was an unnecessary tragedy.
I've been a Fox Creek resident for about 2 years now. This is my second summer here. (Other residents say that these problems have gone on for longer than I have been here.) (CR=chapel ridge, FC=fox creek) I will only speak for the time that I have been a resident at FC.
Last summer, CR closed the pool located on their property because the CR residents were vandalizing it. That's when the trouble started. CR residents started coming to FC to use our pool. As you can tell in the pictures posted at the top of this article, this pool is not large enough to support 2 apartment complexes. When too many people are in this pool it becomes dangerous. When these kids come over and nobody is with them that can swim, it becomes deadly! Most of the time they are completely unsupervised.
The Management was called numerous times (by myself and other FC residents). We were instructed to call the Texarkana Arkansas Police dept. and report CR residents trespassing on FC property. So, we did this repeatedly. The TAPD made them get out a few times, but they came back as soon as the TAPD left, and with an even worse attitude than they had before the TAPD was called.
These kids (mostly unsupervised) threw wrought iron chairs into the pool. They stacked them up and tried to jump over them into the pool. They harassed the younger children. They made threats (and carried through with several of them, like vandalizing my property). They laughed in our faces when we reported them. The TAPD didn't do anything! In fact when I pointed out the fact that I paid rent at FC and should be able to use the pool without myself or my kids being put in harms way, the officer (with his hand on his gun) threatened to arrest me! What I said was, "You wouldn't allow someone to break in your back yard and swim in your pool and vandalize your property would you? I don't understand the problem, are you scared of these kids?" I guess he was scared of me!?!
The TAPD said that they couldn't enforce keeping trespassers out unless the FC manager was at the pool when they were called out. She was always too busy to come to the pool. I guess it never occurred to the TAPD to stop at the office and get her. (?) The only thing that ever happened was that FC management closed the pool for the rest of the day. Once again, I pay rent and that includes use of the pool! This was/is not the solution. It seems cut and dry to me, the police ask, "do you live here?" and if they say "no" then the police say, "get out of the pool", and they are banned from FC property. Simple enough!
Another FC resident made pool passes at their own expense and asked if management could pass them out and when the TAPD were called, if the person in question didn't have a pass, they have to leave. Also simple enough!
Myself and several FC residents tried to get a Neighborhood Watch started, but we were harassed and once again had property vandalized, so we had no choice but to drop the whole thing. Even the Neighborhood Watch person at the police station that I was in contact with said, "If you do this, then everyone will know that you are PRO-police and that may cause you problems". Really? We can't even trust the police to help us with Neighborhood Watch? That makes me absolutely sick! This is what I meant when I said previously that I am putting myself in harms way by even blogging about this.
The TAPD officers say, "maybe YOU should move". I say, "Maybe YOU should do your job". This whole thing could have been easily prevented. I've offered several solutions in this blog. Why can't we trust the TAPD to protect us? Are they scared? Now I'll probably be threated with arrest again...
Comments welcome!
Once again, my sympathies to the family of the child that died in the pool. My heart truly goes out to you... I can only hope that you realize now that I wasn't evil, mean, nasty, or racist! I cared more than anybody else!
