Two Brothers Drown in Park Fishing Lake

Two young brothers dropped off by a baby-sitter to play at a crowded Willowbrook park drowned Sunday after they ventured into a clay-bottom fishing pond not intended for swimming.

Sheriff’s and county dive teams searched the bottom of the man-made lake at Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park for nearly two hours before finding the bodies of Mario Gutierrez, 12, and his 10-year-old brother, Rolando, lying six feet apart. The boys were in water that was about 10 feet deep, authorities said.

It was one of two drowning incidents since the holiday weekend began. Jessie Paala, 26, of Reseda, drowned Saturday in a part of Castaic Lake State Recreation Area that was also off-limits to swimmers.

The Gutierrez brothers had been dropped off at the park by a baby-sitter sometime Sunday, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Angie Prewett. Sometime before 2 p.m., the boys took off their shoes and shirts, left them on the sandy southern shore of the pond and went into the water, joining others who had found relief from the Sunday afternoon heat and crowded park.

Bystanders said it wasn’t long before the two began struggling and waving for help; authorities speculated that the clay at the bottom of the lake acted as a suction, pulling the children under the murky surface.

“They went down and didn’t come up,” said county Fire Department dispatcher Clyde Taylor.

Witnesses said rescuers who dived into the water after them could not find the boys by the time they reached the spot where the children were last seen. Visibility was less than a foot, authorities said.

“A bunch of people started taking off their clothes and jumping in the water,” said Malik Rahab, 20, who was out for a walk in the park when he heard the commotion. “They were hysterical. They were in the water about 30 minutes, then they all got out and gave up.”

Dive teams finally recovered the bodies of the two Willowbrook boys just before 4:30 p.m. Sheriff’s homicide investigators are looking into whether charges are warranted against the boys’ baby-sitter, investigators said.

The lake, about three-fourths of a mile around, is intended only for fishing for the bass and catfish that live in the cloudy water, authorities said.

But the Gutierrez brothers were not the only ones to break the rules.

“I see kids in there all the time,” said one fisherman, Gene Batchelor, a regular at the park. “They’re not supposed to be out there.”

But only one faded sign outlines that rule. On the west side of the lake, far from where the two brothers went into the water, a 12-foot-high, barely legible admonition reads in English: “Warning. Keep out of water.”

By late afternoon, many in the park seemed oblivious to the tragic incident.

Although sheriff’s cars lined the lake’s edge and the bodies of the two boys remained on the sand under a yellow tarp, other children were content to enjoy the holiday weekend, riding bicycles and kicking soccer balls. Adults sunbathed and mobbed an ice cream vendor making his way through the holiday crowd.

Saturday’s drowning at Castaic Lake began when Paala attempted to retrieve a life jacket floating 150 feet offshore, in an area prohibited to swimmers, authorities said.

At 4 p.m., Paala and his girlfriend were picnicking in a grove at the southern end of the lake, said aquatics manager Michael Coash of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.

Paala saw the life jacket floating in the water and went in to retrieve it, his girlfriend told authorities. Witnesses who saw Paala go under ran to call lifeguards stationed on the lake’s northwest end.

“The girlfriend and family members thought he was a good swimmer,” Coash said. “But they must have overestimated [his abilities]. He was quite a ways from shore and he could have gotten tired.”

Times correspondent Karima A. Haynes contributed to this report.