4-year-old drowns in Lakeside Park in Lake Butler

A community is mourning the death of a 4-year-old girl who the Union County Sheriff’s Office said drowned in Lakeside Park in Lake Butler.

Neighbors said the park is normally a popular spot filled with swimmers but it was blocked off with police tape Thursday afternoon.

The UCSO said the child was playing with friends and family when she disappeared in the water.

First responders frantically searched for the girl and she was found near the water's edge.

“It’s a tragedy,” parent Stephen Bell said. “It’s horrifying.”

Bell, a father of five boys ages 8 and under, said he has had a scare himself involving one of his boys in the water.

“My 3-year-old, who was convinced he could swim without his floaties, jumped into my mother-in-law’s pool and she wasn’t watching and luckily my second oldest, Isiah, jumped in after him,” Bell said.

Bell said his son is OK.

“You might not look at your kid for a few vital seconds and that’s all it takes for that to happen,” Bell said.

The UCSO has not yet released the name of the girl who drowned.

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