A day care worker from Bear was arrested after a toddler in her care nearly drowned in a pool.
The incident happened shortly before 3 p.m. April 18 at Gordy’s Little Angels, an in-home day care on Hackberry Drive in the Rutledge neighborhood in Bear, according to Senior Cpl. Richard Chambers, a spokesman for the New Castle County Police Department.
The owner of the day care left to go to the store and left the children in the care of employee Natalia Harding, 21.
While Harding was inside preparing lunch, she left a group of children unsupervised outside, Chambers said. A 3-year-old boy managed to access an above-ground pool and was found laying in water on top of the pool cover.
Harding pulled the boy from the water and called 911. The boy was taken to Nemours Children’s Hospital, where he was treated and released.
After hospital staff notified police, the Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing temporarily shut down the day care. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Harding, who turned herself in April 22.