2023-05-24 18:56:35
NEW YORK — Senior New York City Police officials provided more details Wednesday about the investigation into the case of the two boys who disappeared together on a Friday afternoon this month and then turned up dead in different rivers days later, and days apart.
The puzzling May 12 disappearances of 11-year-old Alpha Barrie of The Bronx and 13-year-old Garrett Warren of Harlem concerned their communities and families, who said they didn’t even know the two knew each other.
The minors did not go to the same school. They did not live in the same county. And relatives said the disappearing act was completely out of character for both of them. NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig tried to fill in the gaps in the timeline Wednesday, delivering a detailed picture from the hours before and after the two went missing that Friday night.
He also stressed that the investigation was “active and ongoing,” and said the police was working with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the chief medical examiner’s office and others to determine whether criminality was involved or whether the deaths of the children were just tragedies.
“We want to find out exactly what happened in that river,” Essig said, referring to the Harlem River, where Warren’s body was found and where the children had last been tracked down the night they disappeared. “We owe it to the families for the shutdown. And we owe it to the public, too.”
According to Essig, the boys first met around 3:30 p.m. on May 12 and were tracked to various locations in Manhattan, including a fish market, a home, and a deli bodega. At 6:43 p.m., Essig said Warren and Barrie are seen together on a Citi Bike near West 143rd Street y Lenox, and a third young man joins them. The three of them rode their bikes to the east.
Between 6:43 p.m. and 6:50 p.m., the three walked across a pedestrian walkway. Two people were seen jumping over a fence and into the water, Essig said, though he stressed the video was taken from a distance. Fourteen minutes pass before any of the three boys are seen again on the video, with the third young man only seen at 7:04 p.m.
Police said the third youth entered Colonel Young Park at 7:04 p.m. and is seen leaving exactly two hours later at 9:04 p.m. Five minutes after that, an anonymous 9-1-1 call arrives reporting that two children pushed themselves on the riverbank in the area and both fell into the water. The dispatcher tried to contact the person he called for more information. When officers arrived at the scene, the young man was not there and they were unable to locate the person who called 9-1-1.
Port and aviation units toured the surrounding area that night, Essig said, in the shallows of the river and along the shoreline. Later that night, detectives were able to identify and question the third youth. They located and questioned several children who had been in the park that night for the next few days.
None said they saw what happened on the riverbank, Essig said. It was also a crowded Friday night in the park.
“We know kids are taking videos, posting videos, trading videos on social media, if anyone has seen any videos or heard of any videos, please contact us,” Essig pleaded. “You’re not in trouble for showing up in a timely manner.”
Warren’s body was found first, in the Harlem River, which runs between the Hudson and East rivers, closer to where the NYPD had been searching, late last week. The medical examiner ruled his death an accidental drowning.
Barrie’s remains were not recovered until Saturday when they washed up in the Hudson River, authorities added. His cause and manner of death are pending further study, the medical examiner’s office said Monday.
Amid their blinding grief, the families have nagging questions. How could Barrie’s body have gotten so far from Warren’s if they went into the water in the same place at the same time? Was anyone else involved?
A marine expert says it’s plausible that a body could drift from the Harlem River to the Hudson River. NYPD executives expounded a bit on that point Wednesday. The authorities said that differences in their bodies, in terms of fat ratio or density, for example, could explain why they appeared at seemingly unconnected times in seemingly unconnected places.
The longer a body is in the water, the further the current can carry it, they say.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call authorities at 1-888-57-PISTA.
1684954715
#Details #Deaths #Alfa #Barrie #Garrett #Warren #York #NBC #York