NOT GOOD ENOUGH
Family: Probe into city-run camp doesn’t answer how drowned boy went missing ‘Somebody’s got to be accountable’ – Kyzr’s grandfather
The grief-stricken family of a 7-year-old boy who disappeared from a city-run day camp hours before he was found drowned off a South Boston beach Tuesday are blasting the police investigation into his death that they say provided “no answers.”
“We weren’t really satisfied,” said Anthony Toney, uncle of little Kyzr Willis, when speaking to the Herald last night about the police probe into his nephew’s tragic death.
“Would you be satisfied? Would you be able to sleep at night? Who was with Kyzr? Who was his counselor? Why didn’t they do a head count? There’s no answers,” Toney said.
“There’s no accountability at all. We still don’t know what happened. When you have a child who’s supposed to be watched and ends up dead, I don’t consider that an accident.”
Kyzr’s grandfather Ralph Jackson went even further, demanding, “There has to be consequences.”
“This baby should never have been missing,” Jackson said. “It’s a shame because they have kids watching kids. Somebody’s got to be accountable.”
Toney’s and Jackson’s responses came hours after police Commissioner William B. Evans admitted that investigators still don’t know when the energetic youngster slipped from view and back into the water.
“That’s the mystery,” Evans said of Kyzr’s disappearance, adding that officials have found no evidence of foul play.
“You lose sight of a kid for even seconds, a tragedy like this can happen,” Evans said. “It breaks our heart. It breaks everybody’s heart. I think the whole city is grieving that we lost such a young child.”
Kyzr’s death after a day at the city-run Curley Community Center sent shock waves through Boston and prompted Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday to roll out a raft of new safeguards at camps citywide, including mandated hourly head counts and the addition of more than 30 surveillance cameras at the South Boston facility.
Evans, speaking to reporters at an afternoon press conference, said staff at the bathhouse — which included 25 counselors, eight lifeguards and supervisors — did a “diligent” search after Kyzr’s older brother alerted them about 2:30 p.m. that the little boy was missing.
Although staffers reported “clearly” seeing Kyzr leave the beach sometime in the 15 minutes before that, Evans acknowledged the “big question” — when the boy re-entered the water — remains unanswered. By 2:40 p.m., lifeguards were back in the water looking for him, and at 2:49 p.m., the camp’s director called 911.
“(The staff) did everything possible that we would have done before we got there,” Evans said.
After Kyzr’s death, Walsh put the center’s director on paid leave, where he remained yesterday. Walsh’s office has not formally named him, but the Herald has reported that documents from the Boston Centers of Youth & Families identify him as Fred Ahern, a former NHL player in the 1970s who was named to his $97,495-a-year position in 2003.
Walsh said staff at the city’s 21 summer camps, seven “fun stops” and five dropin programs, like that at the Curley Center, will also undergo a range of tightened safeguards. Among them is restricting 10 children and two staff members to the water at any given time.
“When I spoke to (Kyzr’s) father, one thing he did say: ‘If something positive could come of his death it would be good for the city,’ ” Walsh told reporters. “Tuesday is something that will live with me for the rest of my life because it was horrible — a little boy, just 7 years old.”
Evans called Kyzr the “star” of the camp, where counselors doted on him and had bought him the swimming shorts he was wearing the day he disappeared. But he was considered a “weak swimmer,” according to the commissioner, who said he was being taught how to swim earlier in the day.
“One of the counselors was holding him up that day (in the water) and he was kicking. They paid a lot of attention to him,” Evans said. “Kyzr was a very energetic 7-year-old, who had a lot of energy, a lot of life.”
Asked late last night whether she was satisfied with the findings of police, Kyzr’s mother, Melissa Willis, said, “No. I just want to know why my son is dead.”