August 17, 2023 BROOKLYN, New York – Throughout Wednesday evening, NYPD searched for a 9-year-old autistic boy who may have entered the waters in the Red Hook Channel behind an IKEA store in Brooklyn.
According to police, Surveillance footage captured the moments the non verbal boy walked out from the back of the IKEA at 1 Beard Street and onto a boardwalk area. The rear exits lead directly onto a boardwalk and pier along the water.
The child was last seen inside the store just before 9 p.m., wearing a black shirt, blue shorts and orange Crocs. NYPD Dive teams and boats searched for the missing boy in the waters behind IKEA in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, police said.
Distraught family members of the 9-year-old boy were also on scene assisting police officers with the search. The divers were only able to locate the child’s pair of orange crocs from the water, police said.
NYPD search efforts came to an end just three hours after the boy was reported missing. Police officials say the child’s unresponsive body was located near the water’s edge of the Erie Basin.
The 9-year-old boy was rushed to a nearby Medical facility where he was pronounced deceased. It’s suspected that the boy drowned in the water near the IKEA but a full investigation to determine the official cause of death is still ongoing.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings