Teen Dies in Fort Worth Hotel Pool

From the Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH — Dave Huff of Southlake wasn’t worried Saturday afternoon when his 16-year-old stepson took off with friends for a swim and dinner at the Omni Hotel in downtown Fort Worth.

After all, 6-foot-tall Winston Ward was an excellent swimmer, there would be other adults, and the pool was only 4 feet, 6 inches at the deepest.

But Saturday evening, Ward, a junior at Carroll Senior High School, drowned in the hotel swimming pool after hitting his head doing a somersault, Huff said Sunday. His death was ruled an accident, the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office said Sunday.

"He wasn’t in the water for very long," Huff said Sunday as the family made funeral preparations.

Police officers were dispatched about 7:20 p.m. Saturday to the pool deck on the third floor of the Omni Hotel in the 1300 block of Houston Street in connection with a drowning, according to authorities.

Huff said his stepson, his girlfriend and other friends had gone to the Omni Hotel to visit his girlfriend’s father. "Another family was at the pool with their 5-year-old, and he [Ward] started playing with him," Huff said Sunday. "The boy’s father and mother are right there by the pool."

Details about how long Ward went unnoticed after he hit his head were not available Sunday from authorities, but Huff said it was only for a few minutes.

"The boy’s father jumped right in when he saw him [Ward] at the bottom of the pool," Huff said. Huff noted that the little boy’s father is a firefighter, and the boy’s mother is an emergency medical technician.

Officials with the Fort Worth Fire Department performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the teen but were unable to revive him, a firefighter has said.

On Sunday, the pool was closed, a hotel official said. "It will be closed until further notice," Omni Hotel spokesman Larry Auth said Sunday.

Auth said there are no lifeguards at the hotel pool.

"There’s staff around it all the time," Auth said Sunday. He described the incident as a "horrible accident for the family and the hotel."

"The grief of the family is unspeakable," his mother, Holly Ward, said Sunday. "Winston was loving, compassionate and brought a smile to everyone’s face. Winston had so many talents and abilities and was best known for his sense of humor. He will be missed by all who knew and loved him."