STEILACOOM, Wash. — The Town of Steilacoom faces a wrongful death claim by the family of a 13-year-old boy who drowned during a summer camp on Anderson Island in July of 2022.
Darrell Lynn McCutcheon Jr. was underwater for five to six minutes, before being pulled out by an adult who performed CPR. When the fire department arrived, he was airlifted to Mary's Bridge Children's Hospital, where he died the next day.
The lawsuit alleges that McCutcheon Jr. died "as a result of negligence and gross negligence of the Town of Steilacoom." The summer camp program ran out of Steilacoom's community center.
On July 15, summer camp participants were taken to Lowell Johnson Park to swim in Florence Lake on Anderson Island. A recreation aide who was responsible for transporting students to the lake dropped the older children off in order to bring the rest of the campers to the lake from the Anderson Island Ferry terminal, according to the lawsuit.
McCutcheon Jr. attempted to swim to a platform about 30-40 feet from the shore during this time.
"It was readily apparent to those on the shore that he was not able to swim..." the lawsuit states. McCutcheon Jr. asked for help but there was nobody around to help him.
The campers were not given a swim test nor were they required to wear life jackets, according to the lawsuit.
Summer camp operators "left the children unattended and completely unsupervised without first checking if they could swim," according to the lawsuit.