Police recovered the body of an unidentified man in his 30s floating in Newtown Creek in Brooklyn on Thursday, and he was still wearing a hospital bracelet dated from last month, authorities said.
Officers responding to a 911 call found the unconscious, unresponsive man in the polluted waterway near North Henry Street and Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint at about 12:15 p.m., the NYPD said. Emergency Medical Services pronounced him dead at the scene. The city medical examiner’s office will determine the official cause and manner of death.
Police sources said the man was wearing a hospital bracelet with an August date and that the bracelet listed an unknown hospital. No identifying information has been released, and detectives from the NYPD’s Major Case and waterfront units were conducting the investigation Thursday evening, police said.
The discovery follows other recent recoveries in the same waterway. Authorities said a week earlier the decomposed body of an unidentified man was found floating off Malt Drive in Long Island City. In July, New York DJ Reda Briki, 52, was found dead aboard a houseboat docked in the Newtown Creek Marina near Railroad and Greenpoint avenues; the circumstances of that death have also been under review, according to law-enforcement sources.
Newtown Creek, a tidal estuary separating Brooklyn and Queens, has been the subject of longstanding environmental cleanup efforts involving municipal, state and federal agencies. The waterway’s industrial history and pollution have complicated access and recovery operations for emergency personnel, officials have said in past public records.
NYPD spokesman details and any statements from the city medical examiner were not immediately available Thursday night. Detectives continue to canvass the area and review surveillance footage and other leads to establish the man’s identity and the circumstances leading to his death.
Authorities asked anyone with information related to the recovery to contact the NYPD. The case remains open and under active investigation.
This incident adds to recent public-safety scrutiny of the Newtown Creek area as investigators work to determine whether the string of recoveries are connected or coincidental. The office of the medical examiner will release identification and cause of death when available.