Six-year-old boy drowns in river

Yesterday, the dark clouds were not the only thing that blanketed over 'Crusher' in Bayshore Park, Harbour View, St Andrew.

A quilt of grief lingers over the space following the drowning death of one of their own, six-year-old Nickoy Anderson.

"Everybody bleak and is like everyone is mourning. There are no smiley faces around here. At this point, everyone just feel like dem have this burden on them. It is really rough," a resident said.

According to police reports, about 9:45 a.m., the child was at the river when he fell into a hole filled with water. He drowned before he could be rescued. The youngster was pronounced dead at the Kingston Public Hospital. His mother was not at home when THE STAR visited the area. But residents described her as a dedicated mother. A woman who identified herself as Tamara, said Nickoy's mother loved her four children more than life and was extremely protective of them.

"Everyone in the community go to the river. We go there go bathe and wash and children would usually go there to swim. [She] go down the river with three children, one of which was hers. It was not like if she wasn't there with them. She is a very strict mother to her four children. Her children dem can't just left the yard just like that," Tamara said.

The woman said the children were being supervised by the mother at the river when all three youngsters got into difficulty.

"She pull out the first two that is not hers. I think she did so because they are not hers and she carry them to the river. She cannot swim so next ting she know, her son is in the middle and in deep water. She start scream out fi help and people run come and try help, but by dem fi take out the baby, it too late. When I hear and run come round, it was like she lost to the world. She full a sand and you can see say she try her best," she said.

Little Nickoy was a grade one student at St Benedict's Primary School. Residents said he sported a bright personality and was well liked by those who knew him.

"Nickoy full a manners and him call everybody aunty and uncle. Once you are an adult, him address you as aunty and uncle. He was a pleasant little boy. People round here try to save him, enuh. Poor [Nickoy's mother], she really try. She pump him chest, she blow in him mouth, turn him upside down and everything but him drown," Tamara said.