DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Neighbors in a Stone Mountain apartment community are asking for more safety measures to be installed after a four-year-old child was found dead in a nearby pond.
The quiet scene at the East Ponce Village Apartments Tuesday stood in contrast to the alarming scene the night before.
Rescuers found four-year-old Kyuss Williams after searching for the little boy for nearly eight hours. According to DeKalb County Police, Kyuss had autism.
Authorities said Kyuss wandered off from an apartment around 6:20 p.m. Monday. About ten minutes later, police said his family alerted them that he was missing.
Search and rescue crews were able to use surveillance video from the apartment complex and a nearby gas station to focus their search efforts on a pond on the apartment complex's property by midnight. The discovery of the little boy's body came just a couple of hours later.
“I got a four-year-old, so I felt that," one neighbor told 11Alive. "I shed a tear to be honest. It was a community effort, like he said. You had to feel that. It was close, right here at home.”
Kyuss's family did not want to appear on camera, but they were visibly distraught and seen embracing one another and audibly crying.
“One false move, and you’re in there," one neighbor said. “It wasn’t just me helping, it was the whole community. This whole community was helping from the back to the front. Everyone was looking for that kid last night.”
Meantime, neighbors are now calling on the apartments to put a barrier around the pond to try and prevent more drownings. Others said the pond was dirty, filled with debris and needed to be cleaned.
11Alive reached out to the apartment complex about the concerns but never heard back. Mark McKinnon with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources stressed supervision at all times with kids in and around the water.
"Never take your eyes off your children, whether they’re autistic or not," McKinnon said. "Children can wander away very quickly. They’re very curious, so they’re often looking for bodies of water when they wander off. Don’t get too far from them, and don’t take your eyes off of them."
DeKalb Police said no one is facing charges in connection with the little boy's death.