Four-year-old drowns near dock at Lake of the Ozarks

LAKE OF THE OZARKS, Mo. -- A 4-year-old Kansas City boy drowned Saturday morning when he jumped or fell off a private dock, the Missouri State Water Patrol said.

Kevon Hennings, who didn't know how to swim, fell into about 6 feet of water, surfaced, then went back under, said Doug Kissinger, who patrols Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Lake for the Missouri State Water Patrol.

The boy was not wearing a flotation device, which Kissinger said would likely have saved his life.

Kissinger gave this sequence of events:

About 8 a.m., as Kevon was fishing on a family friend's dock with his twin brother and 8-year-old brother, he somehow fell in.

When he surfaced, he said something to a woman seated on the dock, then disappeared under the water.

A friend jumped in and attempted to rescue the boy, but couldn't find him. About 15 minutes later, the man left to find help and called authorities.

A neighbor dove into the water and found the boy's body in a brush pile under the dock about 20 minutes after Kevon went under.

Missouri law does not require children or adults to wear flotation devices on docks, but children 7 and younger must wear them on boats.

"There's no legal obligation to wear them on docks," Kissinger said. "Especially with young children who don't know how to swim -- they should always wear them around the docks because something like this could happen."