Fairfield pond incident: ‘The man got out but he went back to save his daughter’

Police say one witness told them the man might have saved his 4-year-old son, who was later released to his mother.

The crash appears to be an accident, officials said.

“I have a guy in a Ford red dual cab driving all over our grass, driving next to the lake and he’s speeding and there’s a child in his car,” a woman said in the first of 911 two calls released by police. “He keeps doing it. This is the second time he’s doing it.”

The woman told police she works in the leasing office at the Villages of Wildwood and said the driver entered near the kids’ playground and went over a concrete curb between the complex’ dog park and the fitness center. He then drove down the hill and around the pond, she said.

The second call from a child off Chapel Hill Drive came at 7:36 p.m.

INITIAL REPORT: Pickup crashes into pond at apartment complex

Child caller: “I believe their car crashed into the lake.”

Dispatcher: “You think a vehicle went into the lake?”

Caller: “Yes, yes yes. A red truck.” Some of the audio was inaudible, and the child said, “It’s sinking.”

The dispatcher asked the child to find an adult. The dispatcher asked, “Do you see a vehicle in a lake at all?”

Adult: “No. It’s under.”

The child told the dispatcher the boy was safe but said the man and girl are still underwater.

“His son is right here,” the child said. “The man got out but he went back to save his daughter.”