Police and family are combing the city for a pair of young friends last seen together on Friday near the corner of 145th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem. gNBC New York’s Ida Siegal reports.
The NYPD is asking for the public's help finding two children from two boroughs who were reported missing a day apart earlier this week and haven't been seen since Friday.
Neither boy, 11-year-old Alfa Barrie of the Bronx, and 13-year-old Garrett Warren of Manhattan, has been seen in more than three days. They were seen together Friday afternoon, along with other kids -- and investigators believe they may still be together.
NYPD officials say they're trying to identify all the other kids who were with them and want to speak with their classmates. They say they've been "working around the clock" to find them and now need the public to lend eyes.
Police say Alfa was last seen wearing a navy sweater with a "Democracy Prep Harlem Middle School" logo, gray pants and gray sneakers, police say. He was reported missing on Mother's Day.
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's when the search began.
"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."
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Garrett was reported missing Monday. He was wearing a tan hooded sweatshirt with a white T-shirt underneath, black jeans and blue or black Jordan sneakers at the time he was last seen.
Local
Both Alfa and Garrett were last seen together at a fish market on 145th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem Friday night, witnesses told NBC New York. A worker at Ana's Fish Market said he saw the boys in the store, where they bought a few items. He said they come to the shop frequently.
Police believe the boys were together when they vanished, though why they disappeared remains a mystery. Meanwhile, the NYPD harbor unit was seen searching the Harlem River near 145th Street, as police fear the two may have gone in, but never came out. Police dive teams had been searching the water, but came out as the sun went down.
The boys do not attend the same school, according to Alfa's sister, but became friends in the neighborhood. Their families did not know the boys 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.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-57-7-TIPS.
