Montgomery County Police Swiftly Rescue Non-Verbal Autistic Child from Germantown Pond

Montgomery County Department of Police – 5th District officers successfully located a six-year-old non-verbal autistic boy alive in a pond. The episode unfolded behind the Germantown Library, where the child was found in the middle of a pond, as detailed in a press release from the Montgomery County Police Department.

After being flagged down on Wednesday at around 5:40 p.m. by a concerned parent on Century Blvd., officers set out to find the child who had been missing for approximately 45 minutes. The parent, familiar with the child's tendency to wander off, was unable to provide a direction on where the child may have gone. It was a community member who helped to swiftly direct the police to the exact location of the boy – the pond behind the library.

An officer, upon sighting the boy playing in the water, did not hesitate to go into the water to retrieve him. "This could have ended very differently," Officer Laurie Reyes of the department’s Autism/Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Unit emphasized in a statement obtained by the Montgomery County Police Department. The child was evaluated by Montgomery County Fire Rescue personnel and found free of injury, to the relief of all involved.

Stressing the urgency in these situations, Officer Reyes expounded on the frequency of such occurrences, explaining that MCPD officers locate on average three to eight individuals on the autism spectrum each week. "In more than half of these cases, caregivers wait before calling for help," Reyes told the Montgomery County Police Department. Caregivers are encouraged to call 9-1-1 right away when someone with autism or another developmental disability goes missing, as every minute can critically matter.

The department, understanding the particular attraction children on the autism spectrum have towards water and the potential dangers therein, offers free safety kits for families. These kits include items like window decals and a special MCPD T-shirt, alongside other tools to enhance the safety of these children.