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Victim's Family Wants Answers In Drowning Death

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) -- A young Maryland man dies at the bottom of a swimming pool at a crowded party filled with hundreds of people. The coroner calls it an accidental drowning but the victim's family wants more answers.

Kai Jackson has a mother's desperate plea for more information.

She is hoping that one of those several hundred people present at the party saw what happened to her son and can help her find closure.

It was in late July that Kevin Akinfeleye, 22, died at the Broadwater Mansion in Prince George's County. An autopsy report classifies his death as an accidental drowning but Akinfeleye's mother says her son didn't know how to swim and wouldn't have gone in the water willingly.

"At this point, with all the stories, it just didn't add up," said Oluwabunmi Akinfeleye.

She's calling into question the events that led up to her son being found in the bottom of the pool. She says rescuers responding to the first 911 call of a drowning were turned away by party security.

"The staff asked what we were doing there. They advised us to their knowledge there was no problems ongoing and that our services would not be needed," said Mark Brady, Prince George's County Fire.

It wasn't until a second call for help hours later that her son's body was found.

"What happened, before the 911 call and before the EMS arrived? And by the time they were on the scene, why didn't the person that called 911 bring their attention to the pool? `He's there, he's there' so that he could be saved? And they left him there for hours," she said.

Now the grieving mother is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with a tip that could lead to a conviction. She refuses to believe her son's death was an accident.

"If anybody can come forward with any information as to what happened that night, anybody who was there," she said.

"If there were so many people at this place at the time of the party, nobody saw someone drowning in the pool? It's unbelievable to me," said his brother, Isaac.

Kevin Akinfeleye's  family says he didn't drink or smoke and was studying to be a marine engineer at Michigan State University.

The Broadwater Mansion is owned by former State Senator Tommie Broadwater and was rented out for a private party that night. WJZ could not reach Broadwater or the party organizers for comment.

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