Family Whose Son Dies At Pool Files Suit

A $20 million lawsuit was filed against a swim club where a boy drowned. The boy's parents said the pool was understaffed and the lifeguards on duty weren't properly trained.

WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Kerry Cavanaugh said Connor Freed drowned while swimming at the Crofton Country Club with family friends last month. He was two weeks shy of his 6th birthday.

Anne Arundel County officials ruled his death an accident, but Connor's parents said the lifeguards on duty weren't trained to save their son.

911 Call:

"We have a little boy who is not breathing. We pulled him out of the water. He's not breathing."

"He was in the pool?"

"Yes, we're doing CPR."

"I know my son was crying out for us and no one was there," said Thomas Freed, Connor's father. "That's what hurts the most."

Freed said a little girl spotted his son floating face down in the pool. He said the lifeguard on the stand froze and watched others work on Connor.

"I don't want to get mad at the lifeguards," Freed said. "They weren't trained. Their inaction showed they weren't trained. We're mad at the lack of training, not the lifeguards."

The club was equipped with an automatic defibrillator, which the lifeguards were told not to use, according to the Freeds. Emergency operators asked about it during the four minutes it took for paramedics to arrive.

911 call:

"Is there a defibrillator there at the pool?"

"Is there a defibrillator? Yes, but they're not allowed to use it."

"You're not allowed to use it?"

"That's what they just told me."

The Freeds filed a $20 million wrongful death suit against the club and the company that supplied the lifeguards. Connor's parents said it's agonizing to imagine their youngest child dying alone in a crowded pool.

Crofton Country Club is not commenting on the lawsuit. DRD Pool Services supplies the country club's lifeguards and is also named in the civil suit. A spokesman deferred to the company's lawyer.

As for the family who took Connor to the pool, the Freeds do not place blame on them.