GILBERT, Ariz., July 6 (Phoenix Times Online) — An Arizona toddler was found breathing in a hospital morgue hours after being pronounced dead following a backyard pool near-drowning, and Gilbert police have recommended that prosecutors charge the boy’s parents with child abuse, authorities said.
The Gilbert Police Department said 18-month-old Vincent Lorenzo Fiordilino ultimately survived and was released from the hospital. NBC News reported that police said the child was found breathing at 11:52 p.m., after being declared dead earlier in the evening.
NBC News, citing a police report obtained by KPNX, reported that investigators wrote the parents may not have realized the child had wandered to the pool because of “the potential of both parents’ state of mind being impaired by marijuana and/or other mind altering substances.” The report also said, “Both admitted to smoking marijuana the morning of the drowning.”
Police sent the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which is reviewing the recommendation, NBC News reported.
