City Says Dallas Apartments Where Child Drowned Has 23 Code Compliance Violations 

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas Code Compliance inspectors found 23 violations at The Doral Apartments after 8-year-old Keydall Jones was found dead in the complex's swimming pool.

They first inspected the property on May 1, which was the day Jones was found. They issued two notices of violation for failure to have a pool enclosure and a notice of violation for a building permit that day.

Jones' family said the child, who was autistic and non-verbal, ran off Friday morning, April 30, when they were trying to put him in the car for school, something he was known to do.

The pool is currently under construction and didn't have a fence around it at the time Jones ran off.

"It was so preventable," said Michael Levine, a friend and spokesperson for the family. "It was so preventable."

Apartment management confirmed the permanent fence around the pool was taken down for a construction project.

They said a temporary barrier was initially put up, but the contractor hired to do the work took it down sometime last week before the tragic incident.

Apartment staff are looking into why that happened and are fully cooperating with the Dallas Police Department in their investigation.

"It's just a bad situation," said James Frederick, who lives by the pool at the Doral. "This could have been handled a little better. A week ago, two weeks ago, he would have been alive, because he would have come through here and couldn't get through this."

A temporary chain link fence was put up around the pool after the boy's body was found. Later, inspectors required the property owner to install rigid 6-foot safety fencing around the pool and provide 24/7security to prohibit anyone from entering the pool area until all required repairs are completed and inspected.

All violations have an abatement deadline of 5/5, 5/6 and 6/3.

Additionally, Code Compliance told CBS 11 News they will  inspect the property daily to ensure the integrity of the installed safety fencing and to monitor the abatement of all outstanding code violations.

The Jones family has taken issue with the Dallas Police Department's response, rather, lack of response in their opinion to the child's plight.

Levine said the family had to coordinate the search themselves and hire their own K-9 tracking dog.

"We were left entirely to our own devices," he said. "We had no point of contact. We didn't know what to do. We were left on our own, and it was a terrible, terrible feeling."

Dallas Police said they had multiple units out, searching in several locations for Jones and checking nearby pools.

They were also working on a request for an Endangered Missing Persons Alert.

"His death should not be in vain," Levine said. "It cannot be that another family of a handicapped child has to go through this again. DPD law enforcement must have something in place, must have a protocol in place, must be able to tell family, provide real assistance."