The Coast Guard and New York City Police Department are investigating a boat capsize in New York Harbor Saturday night that left a woman and her 5-month-old baby dead, authorities said.
The 22’ bowrider recreational boat overturned near the Statue of Liberty while carrying 14 people, triggering a response by boat crews and a helicopter with the NYPD, Fire Department of New York and Coast Guard Station New York.
“While all persons on the overturned vessels were recovered, two of the passengers, a mother and child, were pronounced deceased shortly after recovery,” Coast Guard officials said. Early Sunday, boat operator Manuel Hernandez, 46, of Manhattan, was arrested and charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment, said NYPD officials.
The victims Sara Sanchez, 27, and her daughter, Antonella Garcia of Queens, were taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in critical condition, where they were later pronounced dead. The baby’s father was also on the boat and is among the survivors, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN Sunday.
Reported by a 911 caller around 10:25 p.m., the capsized boat was in the Hudson River near Buoy 32, between the Statue of Liberty and Bay Ridge Anchorage, police said. The search for 12 passengers from the accident involved scuba teams and helicopter crews.
New York waters were the scene of a July 2022 fatal accident involving an illegal charter operation. In that case, a New Jersey man pleaded guilty to misconduct and neglect of a ship officer in the drowning deaths of two passengers he carried on an illegal charter boat in the Hudson River.
A 7-year-old boy and 48-year-old woman were recovered about 25 minutes after that capsizing by members of the FDNY Dive Rescue Team, who found the victims unconscious trapped underneath the capsized vessel.
