How did the 11-year-old and his companion end up in waters off Manhattan? The inquiry was made by the family of a missing Bronx boy whose remains were discovered in the Hudson River over the weekend.
According to family members who spoke with The Post on Sunday, Alfa Barrie was not the type to venture out alone without first contacting his mother, much less for a perilous adventure on the waterfront, and he adored engineering and mathematics.
His uncle, Ahmadou Diallo, stated, “We are still baffled as to what transpired,” adding that his nephew was incapable of swimming.
The boy and his friend, 13-year-old Garrett Warren of Harlem, were last seen together between the afternoon of May 12 and the morning of May 13, according to the police.
The NYPD Harbour Unit recovered the body of Alfa from the Hudson on Saturday morning near 102nd Street and Riverside Drive.
The remains of Garrett were discovered in the Harlem River near the Madison Avenue Bridge on Thursday.
The circumstances surrounding the boys’ entanglement in waters opposite Manhattan remain uncertain; however, an NYPD spokesman speculated on Sunday that “the tides played a role” and that the investigation remained ongoing.
The city’s medical examiner will conduct an investigation into the de*aths of the two boys.
Alfa and Garrett were captured on surveillance footage at approximately 6:00 p.m. on May 12 as they passed a sizable crowd on Lenox Avenue. Alfa and Garrett, according to the police, disappeared early on Sunday morning and Monday afternoon, respectively.
Days prior to the discovery of Garrett’s body in the water, the harbour unit of the New York Police Department had been conducting a search of the adjacent Harlem River.
“He was not the adventurous type; he would not have embarked on this kind of journey,” Alfa’s older brother Ibrahim Diallo told The Post on Sunday. “About this, he never did anything.” He has never before gone missing.
The sense of bereavement felt by Diallo’s family was indescribable, especially for his mother.
“I am unable to provide an explanation for her suffering,” Diallo stated to The Washington Post on Sunday. “All I can tell you is that she is experiencing one hundred times more suffering and loss than I am, whereas I am experiencing as much suffering and loss as I can bear.”
Diallo characterised his younger sibling as a kind-hearted child who bid farewell to his mother with a kiss each time he departed and demonstrated his affection for her through menial tasks such as doing the laundry.
“He would say, ‘I have no money to give, so I will do whatever I can to show my mother how grateful I am for everything she has done for me,'” Diallo explained.
A family friend claims that Alfa attended Democracy Prep in Manhattan during the sixth grade. He enjoyed school, particularly math, and told his family that he wanted to be the “best engineer there is to help make people’s lives better,” according to his brother.
“Now he will never fulfill that potential,” Diallo bemoaned. “We will never see his ambitions realized.”
