This skiff belonging to Wen Zhong Wang, 37, of Ronkonkoma, was found empty in the Long Island Sound. Photo from SCPD
A man spent 45 minutes treading water in the Long Island Sound Sept. 4 after being knocked off his small boat by a wake, according to Suffolk County police. The man was rescued from the water after his unoccupied skiff was spotted floating in the Sound.
Marine Bureau officers Cory Kim and Gregory Stroh responded aboard Marine Delta after a fisherman reported finding an unoccupied skiff floating in the Long Island Sound at about 12 p.m. Tuesday, police said. While officers were responding to that call, a 911 caller reported a person yelling for help in the water off Old Field Road in Setauket.
Officers Kim and Stroh located the man, Wen Zhong Wang, 37, of Ronkonkoma, approximately 1/10 of a mile from shore. Wang, who was not wearing a life jacket, had been in the water approximately 45 minutes after he was knocked off his 9-foot skiff when it was hit by wake from a passing boat. Wang was transported to the Port Jefferson boat ramp where he was evaluated by Port Jefferson Ambulance personnel and released.
The fisherman towed the boat to shore where it was secured by the Port Jefferson Harbormaster.
A Suffolk County Police Department boat. File photo by Alex Petroski
An overturned kayak in the Long Island Sound required emergency rescue services from the Suffolk County Police Department Aug. 23.
The Suffolk County Police Department received a 911 call regarding a man who was in distress after his kayak overturned in the Long Island Sound, approximately two miles north of the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant at 11:52 a.m. Thursday, according to police. Aviation Section Officers John Carey and Richard Davin responded in the police helicopter, located the kayaker and guided Marine Bureau Officers Steven Tarolli and Christopher Erickson, who were onboard Marine Delta, to the victim. Officers Tarolli and Erickson were able to pull the victim onto the boat. The Wading River Fire Department and Town of Brookhaven Bay Constable assisted in the rescue.
The victim, Andrew Punella, 61, of Queens, was transported by the Wading River Fire Department to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead for treatment of hypothermia.
Asharoken Village beach. File photo by Victoria Espinoza
Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau officers rescued five men after their boat struck a rock and began taking on water in the Long Island Sound Sept. 9.
Francisco Aguilar and four friends were on a fishing trip in a 20-foot Pro Line runabout when the boat struck a submerged rock, damaging the engine’s lower unit and breaching the hull, causing the vessel to take on water.
Alerted by a 911 call, Marine Bureau officers responded aboard Marine Bravo. Marine Delta, the U.S. Coast Guard, Huntington Harbormaster, Asharoken Police Department and a SCPD helicopter also were dispatched. Asharoken police spotted the disabled vessel from shore and guided Marine Bravo to the location.
Arriving about seven minutes after being dispatched, Marine Bureau officers Charles Marchiselli and Erik Johnson took Aguilar, 34, and the four other men, Walter Sanchez, 19; and brothers Banos Villalobos, 25; Jose Villalobos, 29; and Elmer Villalobos, 22, aboard the police boat. The Marine Bureau crew began efforts to keep the men’s boat from sinking, securing the vessel to the police boat and setting up a dewatering pump. Once the vessel was stabilized and in tow, the five men, all from Brentwood, were transported to Soundview Ramp in Northport.
Conditions at the time of the rescue were northwest winds of 15 knots and 3 to 4 foot seas. There were no injuries and all of the men refused medical attention. Aguilar was issued two summonses for violations of the New York State Navigation Laws.
The Suffolk Police Marine Bureau reminds boaters to check the marine weather forecast before boating, make sure that properly-sized life jackets are available for all passengers, and to check that all legally-required safety equipment is carried aboard, serviceable and accessible.
Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau officers rescued a man who became stranded on a sailboat in the Long Island Sound Aug. 5.
Carlo Brita, 33, of Shoreham, launched a 22-foot Catalina sailboat out of Mount Sinai at approximately 4 p.m. Saturday. The craft encountered problems with high seas and winds and became completely disabled.
Suffolk County Police received a 911 call from a friend of Brita’s to report him missing at approximately 10:25 p.m. Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau and Aviation Section responded, and a police helicopter located the sailboat in the Long Island Sound north of Mount Sinai at approximately 11:20 p.m. Marine Bureau Officers George Schmidt and Terrence McGovern in Marine Delta reached the vessel at approximately 11:35 p.m. and pulled Brita aboard. Brita suffered no injuries and was transported safely ashore.
Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the death of a man who was found unresponsive in a swimming pool May 19.
An unidentified man was found unresponsive in a swimming pool on Chivalry Lane at 3:07 p.m. The body was recovered by Marine Bureau officers and transported to the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner where an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.
The investigation is continuing. Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact the Homicide Squad at 631-852–6392 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.
Suffolk County Police Department detectives are investigating an incident in which a man’s body was found near a sandbar along the Kings Park Bluff. File photo by Rachel Shapiro
Suffolk County Police pulled a man’s body from the waters at Kings Park Bluff on Saturday.
The county police department responded to an incident during which a car plunged into the Kings Park Bluff waters around 10:40 p.m. on Friday night, authorities said. Marine Bureau divers investigated the scene soon after.
But the following morning, around 7:35 a.m., police received a 911 call reporting a body on a sandbar in the river.
Marine Bureau divers once again responded and recovered the body of an adult male. Police described the man’s location as “a distance away” from where the vehicle went into the water.
It was unclear if police knew the man’s identity, and it was not immediately known that it was his vehicle in the water.
The vehicle was removed from the water on Monday and the incident was classified as noncriminal, police said.
The county’s Homicide Squad detectives were still investigating the incident.
Crab Meadow Beach in Northport. File photo by Rohma Abbas
Three boys got more than they bargained for on Monday when they paddled their canoe toward the Long Island Sound with the hopes of fishing and met powerful winds that blew them 1.5 miles offshore.
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, the Huntington Station kids — brothers Davin Miles, 12, and Kenyon Miles, 10, and their friend, 12-year-old Chris Gurr — launched the canoe from Northport’s Crab Meadow Beach early in the evening but as the paddled away from the shoreline, the wind picked up and they were blown out 1.5 miles.
Marine Bureau officers Michael O’Leary and Charles Marchiselli, on SCPD patrol vessel Marine Bravo, were on routine patrol on the Sound when they discovered the kids and brought both them and their canoe aboard.
Police said the boys were all wearing flotation devices and were uninjured, but had been unable to paddle back to the beach because of 15 to 20 mile-per-hour winds and 2-foot waves.
O’Leary and Marchiselli brought the kids to their parents, who were waiting at Crab Meadow.
Marine Bureau officers rescued two teens from an overturned boat and brought them and the boat back to shore. Photo from SCPD
Police and a good Samaritan had to step in when a boat overturned in the Long Island Sound on Saturday, leaving two teens floating on the upside-down craft for more than an hour.
The good Samaritan located the 19-year-olds at about 11:30 a.m., when they had already been floating on the boat’s hull for roughly 90 minutes, the Suffolk County Police Department said. The person used a VHF radio to contact the department’s Marine Bureau and provide the boat’s location.
According to police, Smithtown residents Douglas Botto and Eric Damn were wearing life jackets after the 16-foot Hobie Cat catamaran they were sailing overturned on the Long Island Sound, between 2.5 to 3 miles north of the Nissequogue River. The waves in that area were 3 to 5 feet high, preventing the teens from righting the boat.
Police said Marine Bureau officers David Goldstein and Michael Cappiello aboard Marine Delta and officers Keith Walters and Paul Carnival aboard Marine Bravo responded to the scene and rescued the adrift pair, bringing them back to Long Beach in Smithtown and towing in the boat.
U.S. Coast Guard personnel were also on the scene, police said.
Councilman Neil Foley, left, and Supervisor Ed Romaine stand by the jetty where a Selden man allegedly crashed his boat and then fled the scene. Photo by Alex Petroski
By Alex Petroski
Town and county officials aren’t taking boating safety lightly, and are urging residents to take precautions while out on the water this summer.
Boating safety was the topic of discussion at a press conference held at the Sandspit Marina in Patchogue Thursday, following a hit-and-run incident on May 24. Mark Tricarico, 31, of Selden, was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a boating accident involving injury, according to a Suffolk County Police department press release.
Tricarico allegedly crashed a 23-foot boat into the west jetty at the entrance of the Patchogue River on the night of the 24th. One passenger was treated for minor injuries. Tricarico could not be reached for comment.
“If everyone follows safe boating procedures, most accidents can be prevented,” Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) said on Thursday, just yards away from the site of the incident.
June and July are typically the busiest boating months of the year on Long Island, and Romaine along with Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau Deputy Inspector Ed Vitale urged boaters to be aware of boating laws in the hopes of avoiding a repeat of the events of May 24.
From left, Assistant Deputy County Executive Tim Sini; Police Marine Bureau Deputy Inspector Ed Vitale; Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine; and Brookhaven Councilman Neil Foley at a press conference on boating safety. Photo by Alex Petroski
Romaine and Vitale also reiterated some general boating safety precautions, like avoiding alcohol while operating a boat, being aware of weather forecasts and following paths set by buoys.
“Stay in the navigable channels,” Romaine said. “Understand what the buoys are for.”
Operating boats while intoxicated was a point everyone touched on.
“You don’t see it that often until you see a boat up on the rocks,” Jesse Mentzel, a bay constable, said in a one on one interview. “It happens, and they could hit another boat just as easily.”
Assistant Deputy County Executive Tim Sini attended the press conference on behalf of Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D).
“We want to make one thing clear—boating while intoxicated will not be tolerated in Suffolk County,” Sini said.
Sini added that there would be checkpoints and patrols to monitor the waterways and ensure that everyone remains safe this summer.
Some additional safety precautions suggested by Romaine and Vitale included a boating course approved by the U.S. Coast Guard as well as a swiming and first-aid course, operating at safe speeds, and designating an assistant skipper in case you are injured or otherwise unable to assume command of the vessel.
“The water can be a very hostile environment,” Vitale said. “It’s a beautiful looking place and it is truly, but it can be very hostile to people. You have to pay attention. You have to be aware of the weather. You have to be aware of the currents. This is something that every now and then people get out on the water and they just don’t get it.”
