BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – The son of U.S. Army veteran Gregory Lloyd Edwards, who died in the Brevard County jail in 2018, was rushed to the hospital Saturday morning after being found in a pool, News 6 partner Florida Today reported.
Kathleen Edwards, widow of Gregory Edwards, and her mother called 911 after finding the son, about 18 months old, and pulling him from the pool at the family’s house in Grant, a friend at the scene said.
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Brevard County Sheriff's Office Cpl. John Jennings said the call came in at about 9 a.m. and could only confirm that a child who lived at the address had fallen into the pool. He could not release the name, age or gender of the child.
[READ: West Melbourne officer receives threats after edited arrest video goes viral, memo says | Defense seeks release of jail video involving Gregory Edwards and corrections deputies]
The family believed the child was going to play in the playground outside but instead found him in the pool, which had a tarp-like covering on it, the friend said.
The child was taken to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, where he was in a coma Sunday morning, the friend said.
Edwards directed all questions to her attorney, Benjamin Crump.
The house’s driveway was roped off as a crime scene so the sheriff’s office could investigate, which Jennings said was the sheriff office’s usual procedure for drownings. He said the sheriff’s office had to obtain a search warrant to go inside the house because Edwards did not want law enforcement inside.
[RELATED: Corrections officers cleared of wrongdoing in Brevard inmate’s death | Medical examiner doubts veteran’s death in Brevard jail was an accident]
BCSO executed a search warrant and the Florida Department of Children and Families conducted a walkthrough of the house, the friend said at about 4 p.m.
Gregory Edwards’ death has come under renewed scrutiny since George Floyd’s death in custody triggered protests around the country. Gregory Edwards was arrested for assaulting a charity worker in what Kathleen Edwards said was a post-traumatic stress disorder episode, then declared dead after a confrontation with deputies at the jail.
Kathleen Edwards has demanded that the jail video of that confrontation be released, and in the past week some in the community have held protests in support of the cause.
Editor’s note: While News 6 partner FLORIDA TODAY normally doesn’t use unnamed sources, it will do so on a case-by-case basis and upon verifying the source’s connection to and knowledge of a story.