A Nashville toddler drowned in a pool during a Memorial Day celebration Monday in what the Berrien County coroner described as a “tragic accident.”

“The kids went inside to eat lunch and thought he was with them, but he wasn’t,” said Berrien County coroner Rob Lovein. “They went to find him and discovered him in the pool.”

According to a press released issued by Capt. Chuck Edwards, assistant Nashville police chief, Nashville police officers received a dispatch to 604 W. Washington Ave. at 2:16 p.m. Monday. When the first officer arrived at the scene at 2:17 p.m., Ronald Kevin Coleman, who would have been 2 years old in August, had been removed from the pool and was unresponsive.

According to Edwards, the officer immediately began his efforts to revive the child and when Berrien County Emergency Medical Services EMTs arrived less than a minute later, the child was transported to the Berrien County Hospital where efforts to resuscitate him continued until he was pronounced dead at 3:20 p.m. Edwards said that an autopsy will be performed by the GBI Crime Lab and the incident remains under investigation by the Nashville Police Department.

Coleman was the son of Ronald “Ronnie” Keith Coleman Jr. and Rebecca “Becky” Coleman of Nashville.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.