A man in his 30s was spotted floating in the Harlem River near West 225th Street and Broadway around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, and he was pulled from the water in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx not long after. He was pronounced dead just after 1 p.m.
According to News12 Hudson Valley, NYPD Harbor and Emergency Service units responded to the scene near the Broadway Bridge and removed the man from the water before paramedics arrived and made the pronouncement. Police said his identity remains pending family notification, and the station reports that the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.
Harbor Unit's Role in the Response
The recovery relied on specialized NYPD personnel trained for exactly this kind of emergency. Per the NYPD, Harbor Unit members carry out search-and-rescue missions across the Port of New York, with traditional duties covering swimmers in distress, disabled boaters, and bridge jumpers. Those duties made the unit the natural responder once the man was spotted in the water near the bridge.
No further details on how the man ended up in the river have been released, and the medical examiner's eventual findings will determine what happened.
Other Recoveries From the Harlem River
Thursday's recovery is not the only body pulled from the Harlem River this year. Patch reported that the body of a 29-year-old man was pulled from the river in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx in late September, with FDNY Harbor personnel retrieving him before paramedics could make a pronouncement, according to a separate Patch report.
In another case detailed by Patch, a dead body was found in the Harlem River off East 107th Street on a Thursday afternoon, with officers pulling the unconscious man from the water and pronouncing him dead at the scene.
For now, the man recovered near the Broadway Bridge remains unidentified pending notification of his family, and the medical examiner's office has not yet released findings on how he died.
