{"id":318369,"date":"2026-08-11T03:32:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T03:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318369\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T03:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T03:32:22","slug":"feds-charge-speedboat-operator-after-mother-and-infant-are-killed-in-new-york-harbor-capsizing-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318369\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds charge speedboat operator after mother and infant are killed in New York Harbor capsizing"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The driver of a speedboat that capsized in New York Harbor<\/a> over the weekend, killing a 27-year-old woman and her infant daughter, was charged Monday with causing their deaths through misconduct or neglect.<\/p>\n

Manuel Hernandez, 46, wiped his eyes with his hand as he arrived for his initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. He was not required to enter a plea and was released on bail.<\/p>\n

Sara Sanchez and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia, died after the 22-foot Yamaha speedboat overturned late Saturday near the Statue of Liberty. Twelve others were rescued and are in stable condition, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The vessel was pulled from the water and taken to the New York Police Department\u2019s harbor unit facility on Randall\u2019s Island.<\/p>\n

After state charges were lodged against Hernandez over the weekend, prosecutors said Monday that he will be tried in federal court, not state court.<\/p>\n

Capt. Doreen McCarthy, the Coast Guard Sector New York commander, credited the rescue of survivors to \u201cheroic, swift actions\u201d by those who responded from various agencies, along with a good Samaritan vessel.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign that began Sunday to help Andres Garcia pay for the funeral and other expenses for his partner, Sanchez, and their daughter had topped $25,000 by Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Antonio Russo, general manager at Il Punto Ristorante, said Garcia is an \u201camazing guy\u201d who has been working long hours each week as a waiter, driver and food-runner, to provide for his family here and in Colombia.<\/p>\n

Diego Naranjo, a neighbor of Sanchez in Queens, said he first met her last spring when her son threw a ball into their backyard. After recovering the ball, Naranjo invited her son to play on a trampoline with his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were really nice people. You can see when a person is noble,\u201d Naranjo said.<\/p>\n

He said he last saw Sanchez last Tuesday as she brought groceries into her home. He said he was shocked by the deaths.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story was updated to correct that the boat was a Yamaha, not a Bayliner.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Turbay reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press reporter Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The driver of a speedboat that capsized in New York Harbor over the weekend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19014,2847,19013,19015,118,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-318369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-ap-online-top-us-headlines","tag-ap-top-news","tag-ap-top-news-l-twc-regions","tag-ap-top-news-national","tag-associated-press","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}