The body of a 4-year-old boy was recovered from the Arkansas River on Saturday after he was swept away from his family west of Sand Springs on Friday evening, the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office reported.
The Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post late Friday that the boy’s father had reported about 6:15 p.m. that the child and his older brother were playing in the water while the father was riding a four-wheeler in the area.
“The father saw the boys moving deeper into the water. So he rushed to save them. He managed rescue the older boy. But unfortunately he witnessed his 4 year old son get swept away by the river,” the Sheriff’s Office said in the post.
However, a statement attributed to the father, Chuck Burkhalter, in a public post on his own Facebook page says he was not riding at the time but was in the water with the boys when they were caught up in the current.
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The boys were “playing and slowly getting away from me,” he said. “Told them to stay in the shallow. And they started slowly floating along with the little current but it was getting stronger so I go to make them get back to the beach and that’s when it got deeper and they as well as I begin to panic. Grab Branson which was closest trying to swim up stream and got him to safety but it was too late to catch Bently so I jumped on the 4 wheeler to drive down as fast as I could but he had done went under.”
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol issued a report Saturday afternoon saying the family had been about 3 miles east of the Keystone Dam. The family has recently moved to Sand Springs.
The Sheriff’s Office reported that emergency responders in boats from multiple agencies searched the river for hours Friday night. They also used a drone and the Tulsa Police Department’s helicopter. The search eventually was called off overnight and resumed Saturday morning.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol recovered the boy’s body on Saturday, the Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook update shortly after noon. The OHP will conduct an investigation into the child’s death, the Sheriff’s Office said.
