A boat overturned off Liberty Island at about 10:20 p.m. Saturday, killing a 5-month-old girl and a 27-year-old woman after a fast-moving rescue that pulled 12 other people from the water. The operator, Manuel Hernandez, was later arrested and charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment.
The victims were identified as Antonella Garcia and Sara Sanchez, both taken in critical condition to NYU Langone Brooklyn before being pronounced dead. Sanchez lived in College Point, Queens, and authorities said the young father who survived had been on the boat with his wife and infant daughter while their six-year-old son was with a sitter that night.
The capsizing drew FDNY and NYPD Harbor teams, along with scuba and aviation units, to the water off Liberty Island. The 12 rescued passengers were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, and investigators from the Coast Guard, the Coast Guard Investigative Service and the NYPD were still working Sunday to determine what sent the 22-foot bowrider power boat over.
That question matters because the vessel type typically holds 10 to 12 people, and investigators are also looking into whether the trip was operating as an illegal charter. The Coast Guard said the two people who died were a mother and child, but police said it was not immediately clear whether they were related, a small detail that has not erased the larger picture of a family shattered in minutes.
Madeline Hunter said she saw ambulances, firefighters and boats crowding the scene, then heard people saying a mother and child needed to be rescued from the water and had been found. Diego Naranjo, speaking later, said he was in shock and sent condolences to the family, saying he hoped they rest in peace in heaven.
Manuel Hernandez’s arrest keeps the focus on whether the trip itself was lawful and whether the boat was carrying more people than it should have been when it overturned. The immediate cause of the capsizing has not been determined, but the investigation now has a clear center: how a Saturday-night outing off Liberty Island turned fatal in minutes.
