Body camera video released this week shows the harrowing moments Hialeah police officers rushed into a family's backyard, found a 1-year-old boy unresponsive in the swimming pool, and performed CPR that brought him back to consciousness. The child's mother was seen screaming and pleading for the officers to save her son as they worked over him.
The incident happened May 12 at a home in Hialeah, according to NBC 6 South Florida, which obtained and published the caught-on-camera footage. Officers Renato Bejar and Hector Rosado arrived at the home's backyard and found the boy unresponsive in the family's pool. The station's report shows the officers acting quickly, with one performing CPR on the child until he began expelling water and regained consciousness.
Body camera footage captured the officers rushing to the child's side, and one officer is seen carrying the baby toward a fire rescue truck that arrived at the home shortly after. The outlet's report frames the video as a rare, unfiltered look at how quickly a backyard pool emergency can turn and how narrow the window is for a rescue to succeed.
City Leaders Publicly Recognize the Officers
Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo and the City Council formally recognized Bejar and Rosado during an official council meeting for their emergency response, according to city records. Calvo, who took office in January after winning election at age 28, is the youngest mayor in Hialeah's 100-year history and the youngest mayor in the country for a city with more than 100,000 residents, per CBS News. He has also been notably protective of his department's image, having previously weighed legal action over a Netflix film he felt misrepresented Hialeah police.
A Rescue Amid a Record-Setting Crisis
The May rescue lands in the middle of what public health officials describe as an alarming surge in child drownings across Florida. The state recorded a record-breaking 119 to 120 child drowning deaths in 2025, the highest single-year total in state history and the highest in the country, according to WLRN. Drowning remains the leading cause of unintentional death for Florida children ages 1 to 4.
Florida had already recorded 74 child drowning deaths statewide through late July, including 15 across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, according to a report distributed via PR Newswire. That pace kept South Florida on track for another historically severe year, prompting renewed public warnings from regional healthcare and emergency leaders.
Federal and state health data help explain why officers' rapid response matters so much once a child is already in the water. For every child who dies from drowning, five more receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries, with more than half requiring hospitalization or transfer due to the risk of long-term brain damage, according to the Florida Department of Health. Submersion incidents can leave children with lasting memory, learning, or neurological disabilities.
Why Supervision Lapses Turn Deadly So Fast
Over 80 percent of fatal child drownings occur during unsupervised non-swim time, when a child unexpectedly gains access to a backyard pool or other open water, the Florida Department of Health has found. Lapses in adult supervision often last only a few minutes before a submersion occurs, which is why state law has increasingly focused on physical barriers as a first line of defense. Under Chapter 515 of the Florida Statutes, newly constructed or remodeled residential pools must include at least one approved safety feature, such as a 4-foot safety fence with self-latching gates, a pool alarm, or an approved cover, before passing final inspection; noncompliance carries a second-degree misdemeanor penalty under the Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act.
State lawmakers have also moved to close gaps in parent education. House Bill 503, which took effect July 1, requires the Florida Department of Health to create drowning prevention materials and mandates that hospitals, birth centers, and childbirth educators distribute them to new parents as part of postpartum care, according to the Florida Senate. The measure emphasizes constant adult supervision and early swim lessons for infants.
Locally, Miami-Dade's Zero Drownings initiative, launched in April 2024, has expanded to provide school-integrated water safety and swim lessons to more than 2,500 Head Start, preschool, and kindergarten students across the county, according to the Children's Trust. The program specifically targets high-risk 4- and 5-year-olds and provides transportation to local pools for lessons.
Hialeah has faced other water-related emergencies in recent months. In June, a man died after falling into a canal near West 12th Avenue and West 44th Place, a case Hoodline covered in its report on the fatal canal drowning. That incident underscored broader water safety risks tied to Hialeah's canals and waterways, separate from the backyard pool dangers highlighted by May's rescue.
