News 4’s Jessica Cunnington reports.
In what marked the second tragic discovery in three days, the body of a missing 11-year-old boy from the Bronx was pulled from the Hudson River, according to officials.
Police said that the NYPD's Harbor Unit found the body of Alfa Berrie just before 7 a.m. Saturday in the water near West 102nd Street and Riverside Drive. The city's medical examiner confirmed that it was Berrie, and will determine a cause of death.
The heartbreaking find comes just two days after 13-year-old Garrett Warren, from Manhattan, was found dead in the Harlem River under the Madison Avenue Bridge. Police had been searching in that area near 138th Street since Tuesday, and found Garrett in the river on Thursday.
The medical examiner's office determined that Garrett died as a result of an accidental drowning.
The pair had been missing since May 12, and the families of both boys said that their disappearances were so out of character.
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Garrett and Alfa had last been seen at a fish market on 145th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem the night of May 12, witnesses said. A worker at Ana's Fish Market said he saw the boys in the store, where they bought a few items. He said they frequented the shop.
As they were hanging out, Garrett and Alfa went back to Garrett's home in Harlem around 1:30 a.m. They left again to play basketball, and were last seen passing the fish market.
The pair was last seen together, and police previously said they believed the boys were together when they vanished. It was not immediately clear how Garrett was found in the Harlem River (on the east side of Manhattan), while Alfa was found on the banks of the Hudson, on the west side.
According to his sister, Alfa went to school on Friday and left just after noon because the school had a half day. He was supposed to meet up with his 14-year-old sister, who attends the same school, and walk home together — but he never showed. That was the first indication something was wrong.
"This is something he has never done. This is all new to us. We have no idea what’s going on, he’s a sweet little boy," said Alfa's sister, Fatima Diallo. "Everything that’s happening right now, I can’t comprehend what’s going on."
The boys did not attend the same school, according to Alfa's sister, but they became neighborhood friends. Their families didn't know they knew each other. Family members and volunteers were passing out flyers Tuesday evening near Colonel Charles Young Playground — where the two missing boys were spotted on surveillance video at one point.
NYPD officials had been trying to identify all the other kids who were with them and want to speak with their classmates.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
