El Paso Water Parks set to open as investigation into 3-year-old's drowning continues
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — All of the City of El Paso Water Parks will open Saturday as the investigation into a 3-year-old's death at one of the parks continues.
The El Paso Police Department Crimes Against Persons detectives are investigating the drowning of Anthony Leo Malave at Camp Cohen Water Park on May 13.
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While many families plan to head to the Water Parks for Memorial Day weekend, they told KFOX14 they hope staff members and parents keep a close eye on kids.
"I would hope that the city took precautions and went through an additional training with the lifeguards. I know a lot of them are young and they use lifeguarding as a summer job," said Belen Cuevas. "For your own children, you can’t really rely on other people to keep an eye for your own child’s safety."
"You can go either way you know, I’m sure the parents are very upset and distraught, but you know as someone else who is not involved with that, you know you want the park to open for your kids and have a good time," said Jason Vaughn.
In the days after Malave's death, his mother accused the city of not being prepared for the early opening of Camp Cohen and that the lifeguards weren't properly trained.
"It was like watching a slow train wreck because they weren’t prepared they didn’t know what to do it was panicking and chaos," said Jessica Weaver, Malave's mother, on May 15.
KFOX14 has been working to get answers from the city about how many lifeguards were on duty when the drowning occurred and the training they went through. During the past two weeks, a spokeswoman for the city has reiterated that details can not be released as the case is still under investigation.
We also reached out to the El Paso Police Department for an update. We are waiting to hear back.
"I think open up[water parks] responsibly, but as long as it doesn’t affect the investigation that’s happening," said Mayeydel San Jose.
The El Paso Water Parks website on Friday night said a 10-minute pool break will be conducted every 90 minutes and patrons will be asked to exit the water.
It also says children under 6 years of age must be accompanied by an adult within arm’s reach and will be required to have a lifejacket.
We also reached out to the city to find out if this is a new protocol.
The city's Water Parks will be open at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Click here for the schedule.
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