Neighbor discusses girl, 6, who was swept away in creek

Chester police, firefighters and other emergency personnel Monday returned to the Chester Creek where Lin’ajah Brooker, 6, fell into the water.

The girl was swept away Saturday evening, hours after heavy rains swelled the creek. Officials have vowed to continue to search for her and bring closure to the girl’s parents.

Officials said they are using sonar to search the creek from that spot to the mouth of the Delaware River.

The scene is marked only with a memorial of a small blue bunny tied to a chain-link fence

Damian Lewis, 46, was in his home on West Eighth Street in Chester cooking dinner when a nephew ran in saying a child had fallen into the creek.

With as much as 3 inches of rain falling across Delaware County Saturday, the swollen creek, which runs perpendicular to the street, was rushing toward the Delaware River less than a mile away.

The creek isolates that part of Eighth Street from the rest of town but it is a temptation for children.

“It’s one of the last good streets in Chester. You can have some peace, sit on your porch. The kids run up and down the street but you’ve got to keep an eye on them,” Lewis said.

The girl and two other children had been in McClurg Playground but ventured through an opening in the fence of the park, which was refurbished in 2022, through the rear alley and down the embankment to the creek.

“We tell the kids don’t come down here, but kids … ” Lewis said. “Everything happened very fast. It’s sad and unfortunate. ”

“By the time she fell in, the kids went in to get adults and make phone calls. Another young man, about 19 years old, he jumped in. It was too much for him.

“By the time I got down here he had no shirt on, shorts and a pair of socks. He was crying ...”

He said one older neighbor had just told the kids to stay away from the creek before the tragedy.