Missing 9-year-old boy dies after being pulled from Bucks County pond

This story originally appeared on 6abc.

A missing 9-year-old boy died at the hospital Monday night after he was pulled from a pond in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Police were called to the pond located at Vaux and Hickory roads just before 6 p.m. in New Britain Borough.

The child’s bike and a fishing pole were nearby when officers arrived, but police say the boy was nowhere to be found.

A dive team from Point Pleasant Fire Department responded and located the boy in the water. He was transported to Doylestown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m.

Parents in this tight-knit neighborhood were in tears after hearing about the tragic loss.

“I feel bad for his parents,” said neighbor Felicia Acosta. “He has a baby brother. He’s going to grow up without his brother now. It’s so sad.”

Acosta said the 9-year-old’s father went to her house on Vaux Drive to look for him after he went missing.

“I instantly got my kids up,” said Acosta. “I was like, ‘Hey, let’s go find Joey. It’s not like him.’ He (my son) told me he had found his bike by the pond and the fishing rod was in the pond.”

Tyler Schuster, who also lives in the area, said he actually saw the boy.

“We rode past, and he was fishing, and that’s around 4:10 p.m. maybe. [It]was the last time we saw him,” said Schuster.

It’s still unclear how the boy ended up in the water.

“I’ve lived here for four years,” said Acosta. “There’s always been a fence up, and now all of a sudden they took this fence down this past year and now a kid dies.”

Residents hope the fence is reinstalled to keep the neighborhood children safe.

Anyone with information or witnesses who saw the young boy at the pond is asked to contact Captain Robert Milligan at 215-345-4143.