A 12-year-old city boy drowned in the small body of water in Albany’s Washington Park on Saturday.
A dramatic scene unfolded at the Washington Park Lake at dusk when the boy fell through the ice. Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox says an 11-year-old girl followed in an apparent attempt to help him.
"Just a little bit after 4:30 we received a call for somebody in the water at Washington Park Lake, both police and fire," said Cox. "When police and fire arrived, officers arrived first, and fire arrived shortly thereafter, they were told a young boy went in the water, and then a young girl went in after him. They were able to locate the young girl. They were able to get the young girl out of the water, ultimately administer her lifesaving first aid and send her to Albany Medical Center.”
The boy’s body was removed from the water around 7:25 p.m. Cox noted the children likely thought the ice was safe, and it appears that the boy went to walk across what he thought was frozen water. It is not known whether there was any signage warning of thin ice.
“This is a horrible, tragic incident," Cox said. "My heart goes out to these families, and I know that with social media these days and everybody wants to weigh in an opinion. Yes, signs, all those things, are really important. It's important for us to get tips out there about what people should and should not do around water. This is an 11-year old and a 12-year old. I think everybody needs to keep that in context. These are children playing. They were out doing what children do on a Saturday afternoon. They were out in the park. They were enjoying the day and tragedy struck.”
Washington Park consists of roughly 85 acres, located between Pine Hills and the Lark Street neighborhood. Known for its small lake house used for community events and distinctive footbridge, the 5.2-acre lake stretches between South Lake and New Scotland Avenues.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan says she was there as first responders worked on the rescue. She says she was surprised how far the youngsters ventured out onto the lake, given how thin the ice was.
“It is always dangerous to walk on ice, and we do not encourage it," said Sheehan. "There are times when the city will host skating opportunities at both Washington Park and Buckingham Pond, only when the conditions are able to withhold the weight of people on the ice. We measure the ice. It's something that we do very rarely, because it is relatively rare for any of our water bodies, especially now, as we've had milder winters, to be frozen solid enough to support skating. So it's really important. I encourage caregivers to make sure that they tell their children that they should never walk out on ice, and this is just a really tragic reminder of how very dangerous that can be.”
The children attend North Albany Middle School. Albany City School District Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter says a crisis team deployed Sunday has held several meetings to put a plan together for providing crisis services and networking with partners throughout the Capital Region to provide additional support.
“There were voluntary faculty meetings at the middle school where the students attended and attend, and their elementary schools that they attended last year. We wanted to make sure that those staff had credible information and a direct line to the folks who are working on this, but also resources for themselves. So we partner with the with the county crisis team, as well as Northern Rivers and EAP, our employee assistance program. So all three of those entities have been part of our planning process. We have membership on our district crisis team includes members from Albany police department as well as some mental health agencies that we work with, as well as our own counselors, psychologists, therapists and school leaders as well,” Hochreiter said.
The names of the city school district students were not released. The 11-year old remains in critical condition at Albany Med.
