A 22-foot Bayliner speedboat overturned near Liberty Island at about 10:25 p.m. Saturday, and a mother and her infant daughter died after the vessel capsized in New York Harbor. Manuel Hernandez of New York, 46, was identified as the operator and was charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment.
The deaths were not discovered right away. Twelve people were rescued from the water before police arrived, and the others were in stable condition, but police divers later found a 27-year-old woman and a 5-month-old girl. Both were taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, and their identities have not been released while family members are notified.
The Coast Guard said it is investigating whether the boat was an illegal charter, meaning a passenger-for-hire operation without Coast Guard credentials, safety equipment and inspection certificates. Capt. Doreen McCarthy said Coast Guard sector New York is working with police and said the agency was deeply saddened by the loss and grateful for the heroic, swift actions of partner agencies and a Good Samaritan vessel that helped bring survivors out of the water.
That question matters because the case now sits at the point where a rescue becomes a criminal investigation. Authorities have said they are still working through the facts, and the online court record has not yet shown the case.
Liberty Island sits in New York Harbor and is home to the Statue of Liberty, a setting that turned a nighttime boating accident into a fatal emergency in one of the city’s most watched waters. The operator faces charges now, but the central unanswered question is how many people were on the Bayliner when it rolled over and whether it had been carrying passengers for hire without the required credentials.
