Boat Captain Charged With Reckless Endangerment After Mother, Infant Die in New York Harbor Capsizing

A 22-foot Bayliner speedboat carrying 14 people overturned near Liberty Island around 10:25 p.m. Saturday, August 8. Sara Sanchez, 27, and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia, drowned. Twelve others survived, some with minor injuries.

The captain, Manuel Hernandez, 46, of New York, was arrested early Sunday and charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment, according to the NYPD. One count for every person on that boat besides himself. No court records were available for his case as of Sunday, and no phone listing could be located for him, according to KSL.com.

The Coast Guard is now investigating whether Hernandez was running an illegal charter. Capt. Doreen McCarthy, commander of Coast Guard Sector New York, defined that plainly: any passenger-for-hire operation lacking Coast Guard credentials, safety equipment, and inspection certificates. A licensed charter operator has to meet vessel inspection standards, carry specific safety gear, and prove the captain is credentialed to carry paying passengers. If Hernandez skipped that entire process and packed 14 people onto a 22-foot recreational boat anyway, the distinction matters. A boat built and certified to carry a crowd safely differs fundamentally from one that wasn't.

Sanchez and her daughter were pulled from the water in critical condition and taken to NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, where they were pronounced dead, according to the NYPD and CBS News. Sanchez's husband, Andres Garcia, was reportedly also aboard. He works at Il Punto Ristorante, an Italian restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, which wrote on Instagram that "what was meant to be a joyful family outing ended in unimaginable tragedy." A coworker told CBS New York the couple also has a 6-year-old son, though it's unclear if he was on the boat. The family had recently moved to College Point, Queens, according to neighbors who spoke with CBS New York, having lived there only about two months.

The rescue effort moved fast once the NYPD got the 911 call at 10:25 p.m. Harbor unit, scuba team, and aviation unit all responded. Twelve survivors were already out of the water by the time police divers arrived and located Sanchez and her daughter.

A private tour operator deserves real credit here. Adam Schwartz, founder of Sea the City, said his hot tub boat, Sea the City II, was nearby on a cruise and pulled 11 people from the water before police even showed up, then coordinated directly with the Coast Guard and NYPD harbor units to get survivors to land in Brooklyn. McCarthy called it a "Good Samaritan" rescue, and without it, the death toll could plausibly have been higher.

The reporting across outlets lines up closely on the core facts, but there's a discrepancy worth flagging. KSL.com and the Guardian both describe the boat carrying roughly 12 rescued plus the two who died, implying around 14 total aboard, which matches CBS News's explicit count of 14 people on the vessel. The Guardian's account of the timeline also differs slightly from KSL's: the Guardian cites the 911 call at 10:25 p.m. and says the victims were transported "in critical condition" before dying at the hospital, while CBS News says they were "declared deceased on arrival." Neither is necessarily wrong. They may reflect different points in a fast-moving rescue, but it's a detail investigators will need to nail down for the criminal case.

This is now a criminal matter, not just a maritime accident. Thirteen counts of reckless endangerment is a significant charge, and it signals police believe Hernandez's conduct, not just bad luck or weather, caused the capsizing. No mention in any account of rough seas or mechanical failure.

The open question is whether Hernandez was operating an illegal charter, taking cash to ferry paying passengers around New York Harbor without a Coast Guard captain's license, without a certified vessel, without required life jackets or safety gear for that headcount. If confirmed, the case will reveal an enforcement gap. New York Harbor sees constant recreational and unlicensed boat traffic, and Coast Guard and NYPD resources for proactively catching illegal charters before something goes wrong are limited. McCarthy said investigators are "committed to holding lawbreakers accountable," but that commitment only kicks in after two people are already dead. No charges beyond reckless endangerment have been filed as of Sunday, and prosecutors have not indicated whether homicide-related charges could follow once the investigation into the vessel's certification and passenger count is complete.