‘He loved me and I loved Ryan’: Family mourns 8-year-old boy who drowned in neighbor’s pool

Ryan Amichette’s biggest goal in life was to grow up, start working and be able to take care of his mother, who worked five days a week as a hotel maid.

“He would always tell me, ‘Mommy when I get to 18 I’m gonna work so you can stop working and rest,’” said his mother Figenie Dugard, 49.

But the 8-year-old’s life was tragically cut short Monday evening after he had wandered into the backyard of a neighbor in Fort Lauderdale, who found Ryan in the bottom of the pool behind his home.

Brad Laird, who lives at 1143 NW Fourth Ave., called 911 around 6:30 p.m. Monday, according to Fort Lauderdale police. He had awakened from a nap, noticed a pair of children’s shoes by the pool and saw Ryan submerged in the water, according to an audio clip released by police Wednesday.

“I’ve never seen him before,” said Laird, when asked by the police dispatcher if he knew Ryan. “We’ve never had a stray child in here. I see his clothes are right here by the gate, and his shoes are by the pool, and he’s at the bottom floating, looking at the bottom.”

Laird, when reached Friday by the Herald, said he was “too upset to talk about it and had no comment.”

Sitter was supposed to pick up Ryan, mother says

Ryan was a third-grader at North Side Elementary, 120 NE 11th St., where his favorite subject was math, his mother said. The school is about a 10-minute walk from the house with the pool.

His mother works cleaning the rooms at the B Ocean Resort Fort Lauderdale Beach, working a 2-to-10 p.m. shift five days a week.

She said she hired a woman to pick up Ryan from school and take him home on the days she worked. On Monday, Dugard says she called the school and Ryan to let them know his babysitter would pick him up that day.

Dugard says she met the sitter through the school as she would often pick up and drop off other students.

She said the sitter told her that when she went to the school on Monday, she saw him walking away with other students. She couldn’t get his attention, so she left, Dugard said. Ryan’s mother says she does not know the children he was with.

“He liked to play a lot,” said Gibson Severe, 28, Ryan’s older brother. “He was mad friendly.”

Severe says Dugard called him around 3 p.m. letting him know that Ryan never came home. Severe searched the neighborhood for hours until he noticed police cars surrounding Laird’s property and asked officers if they had found a little boy.

Ryan lived with his mother in an apartment about two blocks from the house with the pool. His mother and brother say he had never been there before. Neighbors told the Herald that Laird usually rents out the house.

Laird’s property is connected to several duplexes that he rents, the neighbors said, which are enclosed by a chain-link fence. The pool is behind the duplexes. It is unclear how Ryan entered the property.

Loved strawberry ice cream

Ryan and his mother had been living in Fort Lauderdale for nearly three years. Ryan was born in Nassau, in the Bahamas, where his mother had lived for 22 years after leaving Haiti in search of a better life, she said.

Trips to the grocery store always saw him darting toward the strawberry ice cream section, his favorite treat, said his mother, who is devastated by his death. At home, Ryan loved watching “Tom and Jerry” cartoons and dancing.

“He would play music and jump on the bed and start dancing when I would lay down,” said Dugard.

Ryan’s affectionate nature was evident in the big hugs he gave his mother every morning before school.

“He would say, ‘Mommy come here and give me a hug’ and ‘I love you Mommy,’” said Dugard. “He loved me and I loved Ryan.”

How to help

Ryan would have turned 9 on June 17, and his mother would like to hold his funeral by June 22.

Relatives of Ryan have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help yez,pay for his burial expenses.

You can find out more information here.