HARLEM, N.Y. (PIX11) — As grieving families get ready to bury two boys whose bodies turned up in the Harlem and Hudson rivers, relatives are upset a busted fence allowed Alfa Barrie, 11, and Garrett Warren, 13, to get so close to the water.
PIX11 News obtained photos of the fence that leads to the Harlem River shoreline, not far from the 145th Street Bridge where the boys were spotted on surveillance video on May 12. A third youth was seen with them.
The NYPD searched for the two boys in the river the same night after receiving 911 calls about the incident but did not find them.
Barrie’s family said they called the police the following day after the 11-year-old didn’t come home from his Harlem charter school. Barrie’s body was found in the Hudson River — on the other side of Manhattan — on Saturday.
The Bronx boy was a sixth-grader at Democracy Prep Harlem Middle School. Warren attended NEST+M school in Lower Manhattan.
Democracy Prep CEO Natasha Trivers remembered Barrie as “a funny, bright, witty, inquisitive and brave child.”
“We are devastated to know that Alfa Ousmane Barrie is no longer with us,” Trivers said in the statement.
Warren’s family reported him missing on Monday. The 13-year-old’s body was discovered on Thursday near the Madison Avenue Bridge — nearly a week after he and Barrie had disappeared.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office determined Warren accidentally drowned. The office was also expected to release Barrie’s cause of death.
