A 3-year-old boy was killed after falling into a grease trap Monday morning outside a Tim Hortons restaurant on Rochester's east side.

Rochester Police Department Investigator Francis Camp said that the boy fell through a plastic lid embedded in the ground and landed in the trap behind the restaurant at 1250 University Avenue near Culver Road.

Camp said that police received a call for a child missing from the location around 10:56 a.m. Minutes later they received another call that the child had been located.

Witnesses removed the child from the grease trap and administered CPR until first responders arrived. Employees were seen crying outside and consoling each other after the child was taken away by ambulance.

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Camp said that the child, who was not identified, could not be revived and was pronounced dead at Strong Memorial Hospital. He would not say whether the child was related to an employee or a customer at the restaurant.

"This is a horrible, unimaginable unspeakable tragedy," Camp said.

Evidence led police to believe that the boy fell through a plastic lid into a tank that contained used grease in a liquified form, Camp said. It was located just 6 feet from the restaurant's back door.

Investigators had not yet determined the size of the grease trap, which is typically a steel tank used to keep fats, oils, and grease out of the sanitary sewer system.

"Rest assured that before the Rochester Police Department leaves the scene, this thing will be secured," Camp said.

Ryan Horey, a spokesperson for Monroe County's Department of Public Health said the grease trap is not something that would fall under the purview of restaurant inspectors since it is outside of the kitchen and food prep area.

County inspectors last visited the site in July 2018.

Typically, Horey said, these grease traps are operated by third-party companies that should have some sort of established procedure for keeping the traps safe.

The boy’s death raised a myriad list of questions about oversight of restaurant grease traps, such as the laws, rules and regulations involved in keeping them secured.

In addition to law enforcement, investigations into deaths at a workplace can include local building departments, code enforcement and workplace safety agencies, according to a spokesman for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.

The OSHA spokesman couldn’t provide answers Monday to questions about prior workplace safety actions taken related to grease traps.

Yet a similar death involving a grease trap in Alabama resulted in a new state law and a lawsuit filed against businesses and government agencies connected to the incident, USA TODAY Network reported.

In 2017, a 3-year-old girl died after falling into a restaurant’s grease trap in Alabama. The trap's opening, covered with a green lid, was camouflaged in a grassy picnic area where the toddler and siblings were playing.

The lid opened partially when the toddler stepped on it and then flipped over, closing the trap and concealing her during a frantic search for her whereabouts.

The girl’s family sued the restaurant, the grease trap's safety lid manufacturer and the city where the business is located. The attorney for the family couldn’t be reached Monday for comment.

The girl’s death also prompted a state law in Alabama that requires manhole-accessed grease traps to be secured by some type of locking mechanism and sturdy enough to "withstand expected loads.”

New York state workplace safety officials at the Labor Department didn’t immediately respond to questions Monday about state laws regulating grease traps

A spokesperson for Tim Hortons declined to answer questions about the incident but said the company was fully cooperating with authorities in the investigation.

"What occurred today was a tragedy and on behalf of the Tim Hortons family, we offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the young boy who passed away," the company said in a statement emailed to the Democrat and Chronicle Monday afternoon.

Camp was emotional as he discussed the boy's death with members of the media who were assembled nearby.

"This is the worst thing that you can encounter as a police officer," Camp said.

Police cordoned off the parking lot of the Tim Hortons and an adjacent Price Rite grocery store as they conducted their investigation and spoke to potential witnesses.

Police remained on the scene Monday afternoon and the RPD mobile command unit was at the location.

SLAHMAN@Gannett.com

MGREENWO@Gannett.com

Includes reporting from David Robinson.