Victims named in fatal fall through ice

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BROOKINGS – A man and a child who died after an ATV fell through the ice on Lake Poinsett Saturday night have been identified.

The 60-year-old man who died has been identified as Michael Berwald of Toronto, according to a Facebook post from the Hamlin County Sheriff’s Office.

A funeral announcement identifies the boy as 9-year-old Jaxson Berwald of Toronto.

Authorities were called to the scene, south of Stone Bridge, shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday. The Watertown Dispatch Center received a 911 call that an ATV and two individuals had broken through the ice.

“The two individuals were retrieved from the water and taken by Lake Norden Ambulances to Prairie Lakes Hospital in Watertown. At the hospital, the 60-year-old man, Michael Berwald of Toronto, S.D., and the 9-year-old boy were both pronounced dead,” the sheriff’s office Facebook post says.