A 48-year-old man was charged with child desertion after his 9-year-old daughter was found adrift on an inflatable raft at the Eunice City Lake, Police Chief Randy Fontenot said.
Police were notified at 3:44 p.m. Tuesday by a witness that a child was on an inflatable raft with no other safety device, he said.
When police arrived the father said the wind took the child away from the shore toward the center of the lake, Fontenot said.
Witnesses told police the father turned to argue with some other people and was not paying attention to child who was hollering for help, he aid.
“The father turned and used vulgar language toward the child,” Fontenot said.
Charged in the incident was Quince Heath Guidry, 48, of the 400 block of South 2nd Street, Eunice.
Fontenot said Guidry had said he wasn’t going to rescue the child because the water was too cold.
Fontenot said the child did not know how to swim.
Police and firefighters responded to the scene and St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s deputies were about to respond with a boat.
But the child was rescued by James Cradeur of Eunice who was there with a boat, he said.
Guidry had a second child there and both were returned to their mothers, he said.
Fontenot said Cradeur estimated the water was 5 feet deep where the child was rescued.