NYC family searching for answers after body of 2nd missing boy pulled from river
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The family of the missing Bronx boy whose body was dragged from the Hudson River over the weekend is searching for answers about how the 11-year-old and his friend ended up in waters off Manhattan.
Alfa Barrie loved math and engineering and wasn’t the type to go out on his own without checking in with his mother — let alone for a dangerous adventure on the waterfront, relatives told The Post on Sunday.
“We still do not understand what happened,” said his uncle, Ahmadou Diallo, noting his nephew didn’t know how to swim.
The boy and his pal, 13-year-old Garrett Warren of Harlem were last seen together sometime between the afternoon of May 12 and the morning of May 13, police have said.
The NYPD Harbor Unit recovered Alfa’s body from the Hudson near 102n2 Street and Riverside Drive on Saturday morning.
Garrett’s body was pulled from the Harlem River, near the Madison Avenue Bridge, on Thursday.
It’s unclear how the boys ended up in waters on opposite sides of Manhattan, though an NYPD spokesman on Sunday suggested “the tides had something to do with it” and said the investigation was ongoing.
The city’s medical examiner will determine the cause of death for the two boys.
Surveillance footage obtained by police showed Alfa and Garrett walking past a large group of people on Lenox Avenue at about 6 p.m. on May 12. Alfa was reported missing early Sunday morning and Garrett on Monday afternoon, police have said.
The NYPD’s harbor unit had been scouring the nearby Harlem River for days before Garrett’s body was found in the water.
“He was not the adventurous type — he would not have gone on an adventure like this,” Ibrahim Diallo, Alfa’s older brother told The Post on Sunday. “He never did anything like this. He never went missing before.”
Diallo said the family’s sense of loss is indescribable — especially for his mother.
“I cannot explain her pain,” Diallo told The Post on Sunday. “All I can see is that she’s going through 100 times more than I am – more pain, more loss – and I can tell you I am feeling all the pain and loss that I can stand.”
Diallo described his younger brother as a sweet kid who kissed his mom goodbye every time he left and did little things — like help her with the laundry — because he wanted to show her how much he appreciated her.
“He would say, ‘I have no money to give, so anything I can do to show how thankful I am for my mother for all that she does for me … I will do,” Diallo said.
Alfa was in sixth grade at Democracy Prep in Manhattan, a family friend said. He loved school – especially math – and told his family that he wanted to become the “best engineer there is to help make people’s lives better,” his brother said.
“Now he will never fulfill that potential,” Diallo lamented. “We will never see his ambitions realized.”
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