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Father Of 2 Dies Trying To Save Boy From Drowning In Hudson River
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 8, 2014
Modified Sep 8, 2014
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By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 8, 2014
Modified Sep 8, 2014
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A Yonkers man died while saving an autistic boy who fell into the Hudson River at a community barbecue in Yonkers yesterday evening. 6-year-old Stephan Jones climbed a fence at the JFK Marina and Park while his mother was using the restroom (she says she asked a friend to watch him) and wound up in the Hudson River shortly before 7 p.m. "I came back and I thought there was fighting, but it was my son in the water,” Thema Martin tells CBS2.
Several people jumped into the river to save Jones, who is reportedly "non-verbal." Among them was Boyce Coleman, known as "Scoop" to his friends and family. Jones was rescued, but in the process Coleman, 40, drowned. “Scoop was out of breath or something because I see him stop a little from my son and came up and I see his neck, but then after that I turned and turned back around and I didn’t see him anymore," Martin says.
LoHud reports that NYPD divers "assisted in the search and recovered the victim about 8 p.m. He was declared dead at St. Joseph's Medical Center at 8:28 p.m." One of Coleman's friends tells ABC 7, "He died doing God's work in front of everybody that he loved. So it hurts, but I feel confident knowing that he's with the Lord." Another recalled, "If he saw you coming out of the grocery store with bags of groceries, he’d help you even if he didn’t know you. That’s the type of person he was."
ABC 7 also reports that the cookout was a reunion for current and former residents of the School Street Houses, a Yonkers housing project where Coleman grew up.
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boyce coleman
drowning
hudson river
yonkers
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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