A Prince George's County father is remembering his first-born son as an upbeat, happy 7-year-old. But that was all taken away from him in an instant last Friday when his son died after falling into a freezing pond in Oxon Hill.
Two police officers were able to pull 7-year-old Zae'Quan White from the pond and performed CPR on him until the ambulance arrived. But he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police are still waiting for autopsy results, but investigators have no reason to believe this is anything other than an accident. Zae'Quan was just a curious little boy who stepped out onto a pond covered by a thin layer of ice.
"He impacted a lot of people and he's gone," said his father Kevin White. "He's not coming back. I just want answers."
White still has many questions about how his son ended up in an icy pond Friday.
"It's just crazy that he's gone," his father said. "I don't want to believe it, but it's real."
Zae'Quan lived in Washington D.C., but he was at a relative's place and in the care of his mother when the accident happened.
Relatives say he and another child snuck out of the house. Police believe Zae'Quan walked out on the ice and fell through.
"My son is adventurous," said Kevin. "He was curious to everything. He would question everything."
His father says being curious made him a good student at Moten Elementary School in Southeast D.C.
"He was good in everything -- counting, spelling, reading, writing," his father told us.
The thing he liked to talk about most was football.
Dad is a Redskins fan. His son was a Cowboys fan.
"He basically went against the grain with that," Kevin said.
The last game they watched together was the Cowboys-Redskins game a few weeks ago. It doesn't happen often, but Kevin donned the jersey of his son's favorite Cowboys player on Monday so friends could take a photo.
Kevin says they loved spending time together.
"He was just starting to be able to do basically everything with you," he said.
Zae'Quan even liked to go to work with his dad at Dunkin' Donuts. They are sweet moments his father can't believe will never happen again.
"All I have is memories," said Kevin.
Zae'Quan mother is also heartbroken. She says the kids were just playing outside and the pond was not fenced in.