A one-year-old boy who fell into a backyard swimming pool in the 2600 block of El Dorado Drive on Tuesday evening, July 16, and was rushed to a local hospital and later transferred to U.C Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, has died.

The apparent drowning was reported to emergency dispatchers at approximately 8:50 p.m. Officers arrived on scene and saw that a neighbor had started CPR on the boy. They took over until Ceres firefighters and paramedics arrived. The boy was in critical condition for days at the Sacramento hospital until he passed away on Friday morning.

Ceres Police detectives were called to the scene to determine the circumstances surrounding how the child ended up in the pool.

“After preliminary investigation, it appears this was a tragic accident,” said department spokesman Sgt. Greg Yotsuya.

Investigators are still conducting their full investigation and no details will be released until it is completed. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact Detective Matt Berlier at 538-5616.

California had 11 drowning fatalities involving children in 2018, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The summer months of June, July, and August account of 65 percent of all drownings.