Five-Year-Old Farress Taylor

It's a horrible loss.

When a sweet, little boy goes to a birthday pool party and drowns, it's achingly sad.

Police have called Farress Taylor's death at the Holiday Inn Express, 13th and College near Mitchell Airport, an accident.

But Farress' mom doesn't see it that way. She talked about her son's death with TMJ4.

The mother was not at the hotel pool birthday party. But she's angry and wants to know the truth. Her first question: Why wasn't anyone watching her 5-year-old son at the birthday party?

"My baby (is) way at the bottom of the pool - at the bottom!"

Quiana Parker wants to know what happened to her son, Farress Taylor Junior, a little man with a big smile.

TMJ4's Charles Benson asked: "Do you think anybody was watching him?"

"Nope," Parker said. "Because if somebody was watching him it would not have happened. He'd still be here with me."

...The Milwaukee County Medical Examiners report indicates there was a 6-to-15 minute time period when adults at the party say they did not see him.

The father's girlfriend, Stephanie Moss, now disputes that.

"I was watching, I don't want anyone to blame me for this, I was watching him," Moss said.

Moss said an emergency phone in the pool area was not working, delaying rescue efforts.

Parker said her son needed to be watched like a hawk - she claims Farress was afraid of water and could not swim.

Benson asked, "Did Farress like to swim?"

"No," Parker explained. "Farress wouldn't even get into the tub by hisself."

A 13-year-old boy discovered Farress at the bottom of the pool and pulled him out. Farress's mother wants us to thank that boy for what he did - she says she would like to meet him.

Milwaukee's Neighborhood Services Department is investigating. They checked the hotel phone and it was working.

But it appears the phone had been fixed and they' re not sure if that happened before or after the drowning.

The boy's father, who wasn't there, can't believe it.

“That was my Junior. You hurt, tough day, yeah,” Farress Taylor Senior said.

It must be so difficult for Farress' loved ones to deal with his death.

My heart goes out to his family.

I can understand why his mom would be angry. That's a natural reaction. She lost her precious little boy.

I think it's also natural to want to pin blame on someone or something when an accident happens.

Questions about the poolside emergency phone not functioning are legitimate, up to a point.

It's legitimate to question the time frame of when Stephanie Moss, girlfriend of Farress' father, realized the boy was missing. Apparently, police investigating the drowning don't consider Moss to have been criminally negligent in her supervision, though she did take her eyes off him.

It's also legitimate to question why Farress' parents would allow him to attend a pool party when he was so afraid of water and couldn't swim.

It seems to me the truth is there were a number of breakdowns here in terms of responsibility for Farress, but none of them necessarily the sole reason he didn't survive.

The matter of the hotel phone allegedly not working at the time of the accident is of concern. But did that prevent help from arriving significantly sooner?

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, there was a doctor on the scene.

A doctor at the scene administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and the boy was taken to St. Luke's South Shore Hospital in Cudahy, where he was pronounced dead.

It seems Farress was attended to rather quickly.

And there are other phones to call for help.

Moreover, when signs are posted that swimmers do so at their own risk, it would be hard to prove that the hotel is at fault, even if the phone wasn't working at the time of the accident. Talk from Farress Taylor Senior about suing the hotel is unfortunate. I hope it's the grief talking and not real greed.

This is far from the first time a child has drowned at a hotel during a pool party.

Hosting a kid's birthday party is so stressful. It's tough enough keeping tabs on small children at a party in a home, let alone at a pool. I'd be a wreck. Personally, I wouldn't do it.

It's so tragic that a birthday celebration would result in a child's death.

I'd expect Farress' family to be overwhelmed with shock and grief and feelings of guilt.

Farress Taylor was a student at Lee Elementary School in Milwaukee, his family said.

"He had a lot of energy," said the boy's father, also named Farress Taylor. "He liked John Cena (a professional wrestler), Spiderman, and his favorite color was orange. He enjoyed school, and all his teachers loved him.