A woman and a baby girl are dead after a boat overturned in New York Harbor, according to Eyewitness News ABC7NY. The capsizing happened near Liberty Island late last night, turning what should have been a routine night on the water into a deadly emergency that drew a large multi-agency response to the harbor.
The vessel capsized just before 10:30 last night, which is when the call came in to police. Emergency crews rushed to the scene in the water off Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, and began pulling people from the harbor as the scale of the incident became clear in the darkness.
Two of those aboard did not survive. A woman and a five-month-old baby girl have since died after being rushed to the hospital in critical condition. They were taken to NYU Langone in Brooklyn, where, despite being in critical condition on arrival, both were pronounced dead.
Others in the water were saved. NYPD divers rescued several people from drowning, and in all, 12 other people were pulled from the water by fire and police crews. Those survivors were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, a far better outcome than the one that befell the woman and the infant.
The response involved multiple units working the harbor at once. FDNY and NYPD harbor, scuba and aviation units were all on scene, coordinating the search and rescue effort in the water near the island as they tried to account for everyone who had been on the boat when it went over.
Key details about the victims remained unclear in the immediate aftermath. It is not clear at this hour whether the two who were killed were mother and child, one of the questions investigators and reporters were still trying to answer as the scene was processed overnight.
Witnesses described the frantic rescues as they unfolded. One person who spoke with Eyewitness News recalled watching an NYPD boat arrive at the dock, saying officers were able to rescue around five people at one point. A reporter was stationed live on Pier 4 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, as authorities continued to work the tragedy in the harbor.