Huntington Beach Boy, 3, Drowns in Backyard Pool

HUNTINGTON BEACH — A 3-year-old boy drowned Tuesday after he wandered outside, opened the gate to a backyard swimming pool and fell in, police said.

Paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate Joseph B. Atallah at the home on the 9900 block of Oceancrest Drive. He died about 4 p.m. at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

“It’s a real tragedy, and it can happen like that--so fast,” Sgt. Erwin Feuerstein said.

Friends of the family said the boy’s mother, Marie Atallah, had been packing for a trip the family planned to take today and turned on a video for Joseph to watch.

“He sat down in front of the set, and when she came back around he wasn’t there,” Holly Risha said at the family’s home. “It is so awful. They loved that baby so much. . . . He was their life.”

Police said Marie Atallah, 26, found the child in the pool and jumped in after him. She pulled him out and called 911 at 3:38 p.m.

“She was so emotional when the paramedics got here,” said Chris Halsted, who lives across the street. “I looked outside and she was soaking wet, climbing into the front seat of the ambulance.”

The drowning is the fourth in the county this year, officials said. One involved a 20-month-old toddler who drowned in his grandparents’ backyard swimming pool in Yorba Linda, while the two other victims were adults. One Sunday afternoon in May, three children nearly drowned in separate incidents.

“It only takes a second, and they’re gone,” said Capt. Scott Brown, an Orange County Fire Authority spokesman.

Last year, Orange County led the nation in child drownings with 15 deaths and 20 near-drownings, officials said. The numbers prompted fire officials to sponsor a countywide Water Watch program that encourages people to designate an adult who knows CPR to watch over children in or near a pool. Most victims who drown in pools are younger than 5, and drowning is the leading cause of death for children 8 or younger in the United States, officials said.

“Supervision is mandatory,” said Huntington Beach Fire Chief Greg Wiggins. “When you can’t find your child for a second, you’re not always going to look in the swimming pool first . . . and time is passing by.”