2-Year-Old Girl Drowns in Pool at Swim Team Event: Family Lawyer

A two-year-old Georgia girl has died after she drowned at her brother’s swim team event last week, local officials and her parents’ lawyer said.

An attorney for the family of Poppy Pepper told local outlet Atlanta News First that the toddler drowned at Oakhurst pool in Decatur on the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 19. Natanya Brooks, the lawyer, said Pepper attended a kick-off event at the pool with her mom, 8-year old-brother and 3-month-old sister.

The pool was closed to the public that afternoon, Brooks said, and “there was no one else there besides the one family and the three lifeguards” at the time of the incident.

Local outlet Decaturish reported that Poppy’s older sibling saw her in the pool and alerted a lifeguard.

Remy Epps, the Decatur Parks and Recreation Department Director, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that staff were performing CPR when EMS arrived. The newspaper reported that the child was transported to a hospital, but did not survive.

“She loved her brother and sister and grandparents fiercely, and they called her ‘Poppy Girl,’ and she represented just unconditional love,” Brooks told Atlanta News First.

A spokesperson for the City of Decatur tells PEOPLE an investigation is ongoing.

Brooks, the Decatur Parks and Recreation Department, DeKalb County Fire Rescue and the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

In a GoFundMe established after the toddler’s death, a family member asked for funds to help support her final arrangements.

“Our family has experienced an incredible loss of our beautiful daughter Poppy,” organizer John Michael Pepper wrote. “Please help us during this difficult time to take care of arrangements and allow us to grieve. Thank you for all of your help.”

The Pepper family could not immediately be reached by PEOPLE for additional details.

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Brooks expressed the family’s gratitude for the local response in the wake of the tragedy.

She told Atlanta News First, “I know that they want to tell everybody how meaningful the community support has been and they’re very thankful for the thoughts and prayers but this is one of the worst things a parent can ever go through and their entire family is involved so it’s extremely hard.”

Brooks, who also spoke to Decaturish, told the outlet that Pepper’s family hired her to represent them, but did not say if they were preparing to file a lawsuit after Poppy’s death.