By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Two of the five children pulled from a car after being submerged in an ice-cold Minnesota pond have died, family members said. The other three are in critical condition.
"Devastating. It doesn’t get worse than this," said John Sedey, director of the Odyssey Academy charter school in Brooklyn, Minn., where four of the children were students.
The children, who were between the ages of 1 and 7, spent between 25 and 45 minutes under water after the Pontiac Grand Am they were in left a highway early Thursday and plunged into a pond.
The driver, Marion Guerrido, 23, the mother of three of the children and girlfriend of the father of the other two, managed to escape from the St. Louis Park Pond and was unharmed.
The kids were unresponsive when they were pulled from the car by emergency crews, officials said. Relatives told NBC affiliate KARE that 5-year-old Zenavia Rennie and 7-year-old Alarious Coleman-Guerrido later died.
St. Louis Park Fire Chief Steve Koering said the water was so muddy divers had to blindly feel their way around the car. The front window was open, and they pulled three kids through it, then broke a back window to get to the others.
"The water was extremely dark and murky," he said.
Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said it's unclear how the crash happened. The road was wet was not icy and there was some fog.
Counselors will be on hand at Odyssey Academy on Friday to console children and teachers.
"They are awesome kids," Laura Montray, a kindergarten teacher who has taught three of the children, told KARE.
"They're so sweet and so nice. Just the best kids."
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