Police arrest lifeguard after 12-year-old drowns

Initial investigation shows man only noticed boy underwater when preparing to close site

Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

Illustrative photo of a swimming pool (AP/Hassan Ammar)
Illustrative photo of a swimming pool (AP/Hassan Ammar)

A lifeguard at a swimming pool where a 12-year-old boy drowned during a school trip was arrested by police Tuesday.

The boy was pronounced dead by a medical team in the northern town of Hatzor Haglilit Tuesday, shortly after the lifeguard noticed the child on the pool’s floor and pulled him out of the water.

An initial investigation into the incident found that the lifeguard only saw the boy underwater when preparing to close the site.

The lifeguard, who was taken for questioning after his arrest, will be brought to the magistrate’s court in Kiryat Shmona for an arraignment on Wednesday.

A tour guide who accompanied the school trip was also questioned by police Tuesday but was later released.

Police can charge the lifeguard with manslaughter if evidence is found he was negligent in the death.

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