Two-year old toddler Clark Mayer died in a drowning accident in northwest Tarrant County on May 4, 2021. The boy is the great-grandson of famous televangelist Kenneth Copeland. The Kenneth Copeland Ministries campus is located about five miles from the residence where the child drowned.
The toddler was found unconscious in a backyard pool of his grandmother, the daughter of the televangelist. The boy was rushed to Cook Children’s Hospital, where he ultimately was pronounced dead.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner performed an autopsy. The death has been ruled an accidental drowning.
Little information has been made available publicly out of respect for the family. What appears to have happened is that boy ended up in the residential pool area somehow and unsupervised. The child went into the pool, perhaps accidentally falling. He likely was not in the pool for much time at all.
The reality is that a small child can drown in what amounts to no time at all in a situation such as this. While certainly accidents can and do happen, this tragic death points out how extremely proactive pool owners and those responsible for pools need to be to ensure the safety of children and others.
There are a number of absolutely necessary steps pool owners, pool managers, and others with responsibility for a pool must take to best protect children and others. These include:
- A child must never be left unsupervised at a pool. This means that an adult must always be constantly and consistently monitoring a child who is in or around a pool. As an aside, and as will be discussed more specifically in a moment, a child must never be permitted or able to access a pool area on his or her own and without the presence of a proper adult supervisor.
- A pool must be securely enclosed, including with a sufficiently high and unclimbable fence. Any gate to a pool area needs to lock and be childproof. Ideally, the gate should be outfitted with an alarm. Indeed, the pool area should have a motion alarm that activates if someone enters the pool area when it is not to be accessed.
- Parents, pool owners, and others with responsibility for pools should be trained in CPR.
- Lifesaving equipment should always be available and in prime condition at a pool. This equipment must be readily accessible on a moment’s notice.
- Pool drains must be kept secure. They should be inspected regularly, perhaps as often as daily if a pool is regularly in use.
Kenneth Copeland issued a brief statement about the child’s tragic death. “We have learned as a family of faith in the face of life's most difficult situations that God's grace is more than enough to see us through. Our eyes are fixed on Him and we know exactly where Clark is. We greatly appreciate the outpouring of love, prayers and support from so many.”
If you’ve lost a family member in a drowning accident wrongful death case, the legal team at The Doan Law Firm is available to you at any time. A nationwide firm, we are headquartered in Texas, with offices across the state, including in Fort Worth. You can connect with a drowning accident lawyer 24 hours a day by calling our Fort Worth hotline at (817) 935-0000. We can schedule an initial consultation at our conveniently located Fort Worth office at:
420 Throckmorton Street
Suite 200
Fort Worth, Texas 76201
(817) 935-0000
Our firm has 40 offices located across the country. If you are located anywhere else in the country and need the support and assistance of drowning accident wrongful death attorney, you can connect with our firm nationally at (800) 349-0000. In addition to scheduling an initial consultation with a drowning accident wrongful death lawyer at any one of our offices, we can schedule a virtual case evaluation online. There is never a charge for an initial consultation with a Doan Law Firm drowning accident lawyer.
The Doan Law Firm makes an attorney fee promise to you. Our firm will never charge an attorney fee unless we win your case for you. We are committed to fighting tirelessly to obtain justice and the compensation you deserve.
