EVERETT, Wash. – A 10-year-old Everett area boy is listed in critical condition at Children's Hospital in Seattle after being buried in a sandbox by his playmates.
The boy has been identified by his family as Cody Porter.
His half brother, 30-year-old Joshua Quantrille, says Cody was playing with Quantrille's three sons and several other children on Saturday in the back yard of a home belonging to a family friend.
There is a sandbox in the back yard, and Quantrille says his children told him Cody came up with the idea that they should bury him, head first, in the sand.
Quantrille says the children came up with the idea from a cartoon they watch on television.
Quantrille says Cody was buried about from his head to his chest. At some point, he began thrashing around, but the children apparently thought he was playing.
Eventually they figured out that something was wrong. They pulled Cody out and called the adults inside the home, who administered CPR until an aid car arrived.
Snohomish County Sheriff's deputies interviewed the five children who were in the sandbox with Cody. None of them were detained or taken into custody.
The sheriff's office has called it a tragic accident.
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