14-Year-Old Drowned in Essex Pool After Hours: Police

ESSEX, MD — Detectives are investigating the death of a 14-year-old boy found unresponsive at an Essex pool Monday night.

Meshach Praise Massally, of the 1100 block of Middleborough Road, was pronounced deceased Tuesday morning at a regional hospital, according to the Baltimore County Police Department.

Investigators said that Massally—who could not swim—was with a group of youths at the Harbor Point Estates pool in the unit block of Nerbay Road after hours Monday. Some of the young people threw furniture into the apartment complex's pool while others swam.

Massally had been in the shallow end but was found in the deep end and pulled from the water, police said.

When authorities arrived before 9:30 p.m. on Monday, he had been placed next to the pool, unresponsive.

Massally was taken to Franklin Square Hospital for treatment, then transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where police said he died Tuesday morning.

Homicide detectives are investigating Massally's death, which police said is standard procedure in the sudden death of juveniles.