NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH, Pa. (WFMZ) — The search for a man who police say ran into the Lehigh River Thursday afternoon has been called off.
Police said he had just been served a warrant and was running to avoid arrest when he was seen going into the water, but not coming out.
“There’s a pretty high likelihood that this is not going to have a good outcome,” said Coplay police chief Ryan Emerich.
Emerich says a Northampton man who was served an arrest warrant by Lehigh County sheriff’s deputies ran from law enforcement before jumping into the Lehigh River Thursday afternoon.
“The male then attempted to cross the Lehigh River,” Emerich stated.
At that point, Emerich told 69 News, the man went under water.
According to dispatchers, the person in the water is a black male wearing a yellow and blue hoodie.
“We dispatched UTV’s to search the area. We dispatched drones from the county. We also dispatched several boats. We’ve been using underwater sonar to try to track this person down but we have not had any success at this point. At some points, within 3 to 5 feet of the actual riverbank, it’s up to 25 feet. That current is going. We’ve seen some ducks and other animals and they are just flying down that river,” Emerich said.
After six hours crews exhausted all efforts to find the man and will resume the search if new information comes in. At this point, they’re not releasing the man’s identity.