A man was found dead with ropes attached to his waist in the water near the Mill Basin Bridge in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon, the New York Police Department said.
Officers responded at about 12:10 p.m. to the area around the bridge and the Belt Parkway, where they discovered a man unconscious and unresponsive in the water, police said. The NYPD’s Harbor Unit pronounced him dead at the scene. Authorities have not released the man’s identity.
Sources told media outlets that a piece of rope was attached to the victim’s waist and that floating tubes were affixed to the rope, which appeared to have “some significant” weight to them. Police said there was no visible trauma to the body. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an examination to officially determine the cause and manner of death.
The NYPD said the case remains under investigation. Officials did not immediately say whether they were treating the death as suspicious or accidental, and they provided no further details about the circumstances that led to the man being in the water.
Investigators from the Harbor Unit and local precinct detectives were on scene collecting evidence and canvassing the area for witnesses and surveillance footage. Police routinely rely on the Medical Examiner’s findings, witness statements and forensic evidence to establish cause of death in water-related recoveries.
The discovery prompted a temporary response along the Belt Parkway corridor while officers conducted their initial inquiries. The NYPD did not release further information about potential items found with the body or whether the rope and flotation devices were believed to have been placed deliberately.
The investigation is ongoing and the Medical Examiner’s report is expected to provide additional details about the identity of the man and the cause and manner of death. Police asked anyone with information about the incident to contact the NYPD, but specific contact instructions were not immediately provided by authorities.