A family friend stopped by the Brownsville Sports Park Monday to pay his respects for his friend's 6-year-old son that drowned at a man-made pond at the park.
The boy's 2-year-old sister was also pulled out of the water Sunday, and is in critical condition at a McAllen hospital.
Police are holding the children's mother, Maria Elizabeth Perez-Mata, accountable and have charged her with two counts of child endangerment.
Those charges could be upgraded pending the investigation.
It's a tragedy that Brownsville City Commissioner District 3 Melissa Zamora didn't see coming for her district.
"Aside from being an elected official, I’m also a mother, so this truly hits home,” Zamora said. “It's probably the most difficult thing I’ve had to go through as a city commissioner in my two years. It's a terrible, terrible tragedy."
Zamora said the pond where the boy drowned is fairly new.
It was built as a retention pond and to provide the community with another recreation option, she said.
"They're not made for swimming - not the one at the sports park - in fact, we were looking at stocking it with fish so that children could enjoy fishing," Zamora said.
Zamora said although mothers should always be responsible for their children, the city also has a duty to make sure citizens are safe while at city parks.
"We always look in hind site how we could've prevented something, how we can make things better to make sure this doesn’t' happen again,” Zamora said. “That is something that the city is doing (and) we are investigating the matter - we are looking at all our facilities."
Zamora adds that the facilities are built for the enjoyment of the community, but children should always be supervised.
Perez-Mata remains in custody under $50,000 dollars in bonds.
Action 4 News confirmed on Wednesday morning that U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had also filed an immigration detainer against Perez-Mata.
The detainer would mean that even if she posted bond, that she would remain in custody for immigration proceedings.
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