Citywide Search for Missing Boy Comes to CH

A 14-year-old boy from Queens, who is mute and autistic, has the entire city on alert and searching for him since he went missing six days ago. Police received a tip that he may have been seen in Crown Heights, which brought dozens of police officers into the neighborhood.

At around 5:30pm a bus driver called the 71st precinct and stated that he possibly saw the missing boy, 14-year-old Avonte Oquendo, who is mute, autistic and has trouble communicating, walking down Brooklyn Avenue.

Police reached out to the community asking for help in searching for the boy. Dozens of police officers flooded the area, aided by a helicopter, and searched the entire area for hours.

Deputy Inspector John Lewis, the commanding officer of the 71st Precinct, reached out to Gadi Hershkop of Crown Heights Shomrim and enlisted their help. The inspector asked if they can arrange copies of the ‘missing’ flyer to be made, so that they can be distributed to the officers and passersby.

Shomrim arranged a few hundred copies to be made and quickly went around distributing them as well.

The boy was reported missing on Friday, October 4th, after he did not return home from school.

At around 10:00pm the search in Crown Heights was formally called off by police. Sources told CrownHeights.info that a review of surveillance video revealed that a boy with a similar description was indeed walking on Brooklyn Avenue, but it was conclusively not the missing boy.

Police thanked all those who gave a hand in the search, and are still asking the public’s assistance in locating the boy.