2 Boys Drown in Pond After Ice Cracks

Jarris and Aaron Robinson were two adventurous and athletic souls, children often in perpetual motion -- bicycling in their subdivision on Maryland's Eastern Shore, shooting basketballs into the hoop outside their house or doing back flips and somersaults on their neighbor's trampoline.

Their Sunday afternoon seemed typical. The Robinson brothers and three other children rode their bicycles through their Cambridge neighborhood, bundled up in jackets to brave the chilly air.

When they circled their way to a pond in the back of the development, officials said, Jarris, 8, grew curious. He climbed a fence surrounding it and stepped onto the frozen pond. The ice cracked and Jarris fell through. Aaron, 12, jumped in to save him, but the frigid water was unforgiving.

Both boys drowned about 3 p.m. in the eight-foot-deep pond that was used for storm-water management, Cambridge emergency officials said. Eight people tried to save them but recovered only their frozen bodies.

The boys' mother, Jenise, screamed for her sons as divers searched for 15 minutes before finding them, Cambridge police Lt. Wayne Bromwell said.

Reached at home yesterday, Jenise Robinson said she did not want to speak about her sons until her husband returns home from the Army base in Hawaii, where he is deployed. He is due back this morning.

"I'm in and out," Jenise Robinson said of her emotions. "I'm in no position to talk about that now."

Relatives and friends have been comforting Robinson and her remaining child, a daughter who is a senior in high school.

Jarris and Aaron were described by neighbors and teachers as active, friendly and polite. Lindsey Greenan, Jarris's third-grade teacher at Sandy Hill Elementary School, said Jarris was popular, always one to crack a joke. Sometimes he would bring gifts for classmates, such as mechanical pencils.

Both brothers were athletic. Jarris set a class record for push-ups, and when students climbed rope in gym class, he usually was the first to touch the ceiling.

"He's just a boy's boy," Greenan said of Jarris. "He loved to tease girls. He really wanted to be like his brother and his sister's boyfriend. He always talked about them."

Susie Price, principal at Sandy Hill, which Aaron had also attended before starting middle school last fall, described the "overwhelming sadness" at the school yesterday.

"We're numb, shocked, frightened," Price said. "All of those things wrapped up into a million things."

Randall Blackmon, who lives next door to the Robinsons, said the boys' deaths, by jumping a fence and stepping onto the ice, indicated their adventurous spirit.

"It wasn't in any mischievous way, but I think it was an adventurous way," Blackmon said. "They were all boy. One hundred percent."

Staff writer Avis Thomas-Lester and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.