DROWNED KID A COP'S SON
By LARRY CELONA and JOHN DOYLE
Posted: 3:44 am
July 6, 2008
An 8-year-old boy who drowned at a Queens relative's backyard pool during a Fourth of July party was the son of a cop, authorities said yesterday.
Justine Almonte, who died after falling into the deep end of the pool at the home on 136th Street in Flushing on Friday, is the son of an officer in Brooklyn's 75th Precinct, sources said.
Family members were too distraught to speak at the boy's Ridgewood home and a man who answered the phone at the 136th Street house declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the medical examiner yesterday ruled Justine's death an accidental drowning.
Officials initially believed the boy suffered a seizure.
Almonte was the only child among the crowd of family and friends at the holiday party when revelers realized at around 7 p.m. that he was missing.
"People turned and said, 'Where's the kid?' " a source said. "Someone said, 'He's in the pool.' "
A family friend who is also a lifeguard pulled the boy out but could not resuscitate him. He died at New York Hospital Queens.
