Boat Capsizes Near Liberty Island, Two Critically Injured, About a Dozen Others Rescued

A boat carrying about a dozen people flipped over in New York Harbor near Liberty Island shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday, triggering a multi-agency rescue effort in the dark waters around the Statue of Liberty, according to the New York Post and Patch, both citing police sources and ABC 7.

NYPD divers found two victims, a woman and a child, in the water, according to police sources cited by ABC 7 and reported by Patch. Both were pulled out and rushed to a hospital in critical condition, according to those sources.

Roughly a dozen other people aboard the vessel were rescued and are safe, according to the New York Post.

FDNY Harbor, Scuba and Aviation units responded to the scene alongside the Coast Guard, according to Patch and the New York Post. Multiple people were pulled from the water before police divers arrived on scene, Patch reported, citing ABC 7.

Neither outlet has published the identities of the victims, the cause of the capsizing, or whether the vessel was a commercial tour boat, a private charter, or something else entirely. Neither report specifies water or air temperature at the time, which matters for a person's odds of surviving prolonged exposure in New York Harbor at night.

Both the New York Post and Patch describe this as a developing story built on police sources rather than an official NYPD or Coast Guard statement. Patch noted it reached out to authorities directly and had not received a response as of publication. Nothing here yet comes from an on-the-record agency spokesperson, only from sources described as connected to police and relayed through ABC 7's reporting.

No agency has released a passenger manifest, the boat's registration, or confirmed how many people in total were aboard when it overturned. The exact number rescued versus the total headcount hasn't been reconciled publicly.

There's no indication yet from either source of what caused the boat to capsize, whether weather, overcrowding, mechanical failure, or operator error played a role. That question will likely fall to the Coast Guard, which typically investigates capsizing incidents involving vessels in federal waterways, and potentially the NYPD Harbor Unit.

The condition of the woman and child has not been updated beyond "critical" in either report. No hospital has been named publicly, and no timeline has been given for when updates on their condition might come.

The public record so far rests on unnamed police sources relayed through ABC 7's initial reporting, picked up by the New York Post and Patch. A fuller account, including the vessel's identity, passenger count, and a cause, will depend on whether the NYPD, FDNY, or Coast Guard issues an official statement in the days ahead.