A 6-year-old boy drowned Tuesday, March 25 in a pond near a Buddhist temple at 11911 SE 196th St., in Kent.
Officers were dispatched at about 5:15 p.m. March 25 to reports of a lost child in the 19800 block of 119th Avenue SE, according to a Friday, March 28 email from Kent Police Assistant Chief Jarod Kasner. That is just 0.1 miles from the pond where the boy was found at about 6 p.m. He died at the scene.
“Initial information is that he has autism and was drawn to the water,” Kasner said.
Tasiin M Ahmed died from asphyxia, drowning and the manner of death is accident, according to a March 27 report by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“This appears to be a terrible tragedy to all those involved,” Kasner said.
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Although autism can be diagnosed at any age, it is described as a “developmental disorder” because symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life.
Drowning accounts for more than 70% of wandering-related fatalities, according to a 2017 study from the National Autism Association. For children with autism, the risk of drowning is 160 times that of the general pediatric population, according to a study.
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