Industry boy drowns during church outing

A three-year-old boy on Thursday died during a church outing at the Marudi Creek, where it is suspected that he wandered into the deep while playing with other children.

Douquan Edwards, of Fourth Street, Industry, East Coast Demerara, is believed to have drowned, police said on Thursday.

Douquan Edwards
Douquan Edwards

He was left in the care of a church member along with two other toddlers playing in ankle-high water, while his mother went to play draughts nearby. “It wasn’t deep there. I took my eyes off him for a few minutes. This all happen in less than fifteen minutes,” his mother, Shenella Brown, told Stabroek News as she wept inconsolably.

Brown said the church member soon approached her but her son was not with the woman.

When she asked where he was, the woman said he was still at the creek.

Douquan, however, did not like water and as a result Brown rushed to the area where she left him but did not see him.

Soon, she and other church members launched a frantic search for the boy. It took about fifteen minutes for them to find his body resting in a shallow area, motionless.

A lady at the creek tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him by preforming cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). He was subsequently rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

When Stabroek News visited his residence yesterday, neighbours were still in shock about his death.

They said he was loving, intelligent and popular despite his tender age. “His mother would often leave him with us from time to time when she has errands to run. Everyone in this street knows him or he knows them. He knows people here not even his mother knows,” lamented one saddened neighbour as she fought to hold back her tears.

Douquan, who attended the Tender Care Play Group and was said to be very intelligent and doing exceptionally well for his age, is expected to be buried next Wednesday