El Paso apartment employee denies pool electrocution happened; warns residents not to talk

An employee for an apartment complex where a man died after being electrocuted in the swimming pool there denied the incident ever happened and warned a resident preparing to do an interview Friday night with ABC-7 not to talk to media “liars.”

El Paso police said 50-year old Roy Charles Stoltz died as a result of being electrocuted while swimming Thursday night in the pool at the Hallmark Apartments at 1620 Mescalero Drive.

Sgt. Enrique Carrillo said the electrocution death was apparently the result of malfunctioning pool lights that also electrically shocked other swimmers. However, Stoltz was the only swimmer to die of his injuries.

An ABC-7 reporter and photographer visited the apartment complex Friday night to talk to residents about the incident. The KVIA crew was invited into an apartment by a concerned resident named Manny, who told ABC-7 in Spanish that his grandchildren went swimming in the pool the evening before the deadly incident.

As reporter Kate Bieri was preparing to do an on camera interview with the resident, an employee of the apartment complex came to the door of that apartment — and for 20 minutes cautioned the resident not to speak with ABC-7. The employee also told Bieri she didn’t believe Stoltz was electrocuted in the pool, and continued to deny it even after being shown a police report outlining what investigators determined had happened.

You can watch video below shot on the reporter’s iPhone that shows a portion of the incident.