Miami shuts enclosed park slides after 13-year-old dies following Shenandoah Park incident

The City of Miami is shutting down the enclosed slides at its parks pending a safety assessment, nearly two weeks after a 13-year-old boy became trapped inside a slide at Shenandoah Park and later died, NBC6 reported Wednesday. Crews boarded up the slide at the center of the investigation on Wednesday, Oct. 7, as City Commissioner Rolando Escalona called for every enclosed slide in the city to stay closed until it undergoes additional safety reviews.

Mayor Eileen Higgins said the city will review the investigation's findings and decide whether more safety measures are needed. "We will take any necessary steps that are needed," Higgins told NBC6. The city has not said how many parks or slides are affected or how long the review will take.

What happened at Shenandoah Park

Miami police said a juvenile was found unresponsive at Shenandoah Park, near 1800 Southwest 21st Avenue, on Friday, Sept. 25. Miami Fire Rescue took the boy to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, NBC6 reported at the time. Authorities said foul play was not suspected, and officials told WSVN that the case was not being treated as a criminal investigation.

Initial reports that day described the child only as a minor of unknown age. WSVN reported that the park was closed to the public while investigators combed the area and that it remained unclear why the boy had been found unresponsive. Police did not say how he was found or by whom, and released no update on his condition at the time.

Escalona, who represents District 3, said in an Instagram post that day that the park was closed for a "non-criminal investigation." Video from NBC6's Chopper6 showed investigators examining the inside and outside of a slide on the playground, and Miami Crime Scene Investigations vehicles were seen leaving the scene. NBC6 later reported that the boy, 13, had died after being taken to the hospital. Neither police nor the city has publicly described how he died, and NBC6 reported that the exact circumstances remain under investigation. The Florida Press is not naming the boy because officials have not identified him.

What the family says

The boy's mother told NBC6 that a good Samaritan pulled her son out after he had become trapped inside the slide, and that the rescuer told her his shirt had wrapped around his neck. She also said an investigator told her a bolt had been protruding from the slide where her son became trapped, and that the bolt had since been replaced.

City officials have not publicly confirmed those details. As of Wednesday night, the city had not confirmed to NBC6 that any bolt was replaced. Speaking in Spanish, the mother told the station it felt as though nothing had happened, as children continued to use the playground in the days after her son's death.

The city's response

On Wednesday, NBC6 saw dozens of children playing at Shenandoah Park before crews blocked access to the slide. Enclosed slides at City of Miami parks are now being shut down pending further assessment, the station reported. Escalona's call goes further, asking that all enclosed slides citywide remain closed until they pass additional safety reviews.

The city did not answer NBC6's questions about why the slide was boarded up nearly two weeks after the boy's death, or whether the timing was connected to the investigation. Higgins' statement did not set a timeline for the review or say what standard the slides would be measured against. The city has also not released a list of the parks where slides are being closed.

A recently renovated playground

The equipment at Shenandoah Park is not old. NBC6 found that the park underwent a 2024 renovation costing more than $800,000, part of a City of Miami playground replacement and upgrade initiative that included new equipment. That raises questions the city has not yet addressed publicly: how the slide was inspected after installation, how often city crews check playground hardware, and whether the same model of enclosed slide was installed at other parks under the same program.

The playground equipment manufacturer is KOMPAN, a Denmark-based company whose play structures are installed in parks across the United States. In a statement to NBC6, KOMPAN said it was "deeply saddened by the tragedy" and "will cooperate appropriately with relevant parties," but did not comment on the specific circumstances. NBC6 did not report any prior incidents involving the slides.

Why enclosed slides draw scrutiny

Enclosed tube and tunnel slides are a fixture of modern playgrounds, but they limit how easily adults can see a child who gets into trouble inside. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Public Playground Safety Handbook, the main federal guidance for public playgrounds, specifically warns about protruding hardware such as bolt ends and about entanglement hazards that can catch a child's clothing. Those are the same kinds of hazards described in the family's account, though officials have not confirmed what caused the boy's death.

Those guidelines are voluntary. Owners such as cities generally rely on routine inspections by their own staff or contractors to spot loose or protruding hardware, which is why the timing and scope of Miami's review, and what it finds about inspection practices, will matter to parents across the city.

Unanswered questions

Key details remain unconfirmed by officials:

• The exact date and cause of the boy's death, which typically would be determined by the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner.
• Whether a bolt was protruding from the slide and whether it was replaced, as the family says an investigator told them.
• How many City of Miami parks have enclosed slides, and which ones are now closed.
• How long the closures and safety review will last, and who will conduct the review.

What's next

Higgins has said the city will act on the investigation's findings once it reviews them. Until then, parents can expect enclosed slides at city parks to remain blocked off until the city completes its assessment. The investigation into the boy's death remains open, and the city has not said when it expects to release findings or reopen the slides.