General News of Friday, 17 August 2018
Source: Ezekiel Fiifi Koomson
2018-08-17
Elizabeth Solomon and her son’s One Week will be held this weekend
Sister of Elizabeth Solomon, who recently lost her life in a backyard pool in Brampton, Sharon Solomon have rallied a passionate call to the media and public to debunk reports saying her sister and her 5 year old nephew died in their backyard pool in Brampton.
To buttress her statement, the visibly frustrated Sharon charged the public to refute such claims about the circumstances surrounding her sister’s death saying “there is a gross fallacy in the report my sister’s husband gave to both the family and media because it’s not logic that my sister and his little boy would drown in a 2ft swimming pool, honestly the story he” Emmanuel Akrong Sr” doesn’t add up therefore we counting on the Canadian police to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.
Meanwhile, Sharon called for the public’s support ahead of the one week celebrations of her lost relatives which is slated for 19th August, 2018 at Tema Comm. 9.
Background Story
Early reports suggests that Elizabeth Solomon and his 5year old son Emmanuel Akrong jnr died in a backyard pool in Brampton.
“I tried to help my son,” distraught Emmanuel Akrong Sr. told the Star in a telephone interview on Sunday afternoon, the day after the shocking double tragedy.
He said he also tried to lift his wife out of the water, but couldn’t manage it on his own.
Next-door-neighbour Ozzy Anjum, 28, says he heard Akrong yelling that he needed help for his wife and son at his pool.
Anjum rushed to help, running through the front door and through to the pool area. There he saw the youngster lying on the deck, unresponsive. Solomon, 38, was still in the water, face down.
He tried unsuccessfully to do CPR on the boy, then jumped into the pool with another neighbour to get Solomon.
“We dragged her out and flipped her on the deck. There was dirt in her eyes and mouth,” Anjum recalls. Then the paramedics and police jumped in.
On Sunday, the Star spoke with neighbours and the pastor of the Pentecostal church where Solomon worshipped with her husband.
The Star also spoke briefly with Akrong to piece together how the tragedy unfolded.
Pastor John Danquah spoke by telephone from his home, where grief-stricken Akrong, a director at Tangerine Bank, is staying for the time being. Police have sealed off his residence on Hillson Crt, a quiet residential street northeast of Hwy. 410, for their investigation.
Peel Region police are working with the coroner’s office to determine exactly how the deaths occurred.
Danquah explained that at around 7:30 on Saturday evening, Solomon was on a telephone call to her mother, who lives in Ghana. Then Solomon said “My son is dying,” and the phone line went dead.
In a panic, Solomon’s mother immediately called her son — Solomon’s brother — in the U.S. and asked him to find out what had happened. He called Brampton and spoke to his brother-in-law, who told him everything was fine as far as he knew.
Akrong was on the second floor having a nap when the telephone call came through.
Moments later, Solomon’s mother, still worried, called and spoke with Akrong, who then went downstairs to look for his wife and son but couldn’t find them. Akrong told the Star he soon began to fear something had happened near the pool.
He said the pool, which was installed by a previous owner, had been emptied and he and his wife decided they’d close it for this season.
He says the pool contained some rainwater, about two feet of it in the deep end. The water came up to his knees and he could walk through it, he says.
Akrong speculates that his son was walking near the pool, fell in, and his wife tried to rescue the youngster. Neither were swimmers.
“Everyone is surprised she could drown,” Akrong says, referring to his wife. Akrong described his son as a “lovely boy, my best friend. We had a lot of fun together.”
The youngster was attending a pre-school in Brampton.