Police officers search Liberty Island coast after boat capsizes
Two dead, including an infant, after boat capsized off Liberty Island coast; 12 people rescued from water
A woman and child died when a boat capsized off the coast of Liberty Island in New York Harbor Saturday night, police said.
The victims were among 14 people who had to be pulled from the water after the vessel, which sources said was a 22-foot bowrider motorboat, flipped over at about 10:25 p.m.
The dead child was 5 months old, sources said.
“No. Why? Why? No.” a loved one of the victims could be heard yelling in horror at NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn, where many of the victims had been taken.
Some could be seen in the hospital lobby where they were being treated for minor injuries still holding their life jackets.
It wasn’t clear what caused the capsizing. Neither the tot nor the woman, who was reportedly 27, had been identified pending family notification, the NYPD said early Sunday.
Video of the incident shows blue and red emergency craft lights in the harbor’s darkness searching the waters after the incident.
The NYPD said that 12 of the 14 victims were pulled to safety by the time they arrived, and that NYPD divers found the woman and child and transported them to the hospital, where they later died.