A body has been recovered during a desperate search for a 5-year-old boy who fell into a river while playing with his siblings.
Brendan Mitchell plunged into the Harlem River while climbing a tree on Saturday evening.
A police spokesperson said on Tuesday: “It’s probably the 5-year-old. It’s looking more and more like this is the kid.”
Officers said the body was recovered at around 11:30 am. The US Coast Guard Tri-State, FDNY, and NYPD worked together in the search for the 5-year-old.
Investigators are working to identify the body.
According to reports, the boy was last seen around 2:30 pm as he played with his siblings near the shoreline of Randall’s Island.
The boy was climbing a tree near the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge when he plunged into the water, sources said to New York Post.
Luis Ramos was reportedly coaching children playing soccer when Brendan fell. He said that his arm was briefly visible as parents ran to the area.
He told NY Post: “The parents jumped in, that’s why they’re wet. They jumped in to look for him. A couple of other parents jumped in too. The thing is it’s so dark you can’t see anything in the water.
“I heard the parents going: ‘Over there! Over there!’ I saw a little arm out of the water, that was it. The last thing I saw was an arm sticking out.”
Ramos added: “Everybody was just playing around and I guess they went to the side of the water and something must of happened.”
Rosa Mencia, a resident, said to New York Daily News that she saw a young boy running towards the river.
“The family were in the field with the children and many children were playing soccer. Then one child was running, just running to the water,” she expressed.
“The boy — he went right down. People ran into the water, and they couldn’t get him. They were crying. I looked at the father and he threw himself to the floor. He was crying.”
Another witness, Karim Hutson, said: “I saw a bunch of people running towards the water and people started stripping. Immediately everybody started looking to try and see if they can find the kid.
“There was about four or five folks in the water and I guess 10 or so people running around the shore trying to see if they can locate the kid and they just couldn’t find him… Everybody was trying to see what they can do.”
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