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Fourteen people went out on the water near Liberty Island Saturday night for a birthday celebration. Two of them never came home.

Sara Sanchez, 27, and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia, both of Queens, drowned when the boat carrying them capsized in New York Harbor. The captain piloting that boat, 46-year-old Manuel Hernandez of Manhattan, was arrested early Sunday and now faces two federal counts of misconduct or neglect of a ship officer resulting in death. He did not enter a plea at his initial federal court appearance.

What Prosecutors Allege

According to the federal complaint, Hernandez was operating the vessel — a Yamaha AR210 — without the proper licenses required to pilot it, and the boat was carrying more people than its capacity allowed when it overturned.

The Coast Guard is separately investigating whether Hernandez was running an unlicensed, illegal charter, lacking both the required credentials and safety equipment. A law enforcement source briefed on the matter told CNN investigators believe the boat was likely over capacity, echoing the criminal complaint's own allegations.

Federal rules generally require additional credentials and inspections for any boat carrying more than six paying passengers — a threshold this case appears to have crossed without the paperwork to back it up.

Hernandez initially faced 13 counts of reckless endangerment filed by local police before federal prosecutors took over the case. He was released Monday on a $50,000 personal recognizance bond, with conditions barring him from operating any boat or vessel, requiring him to surrender his travel documents, and prohibiting any contact with passengers or anyone connected to the boat's operator. He's due back in court for a preliminary hearing September 9, represented by attorney Amy Gallicchio.

Not the First Time

This isn't the first fatal charter case New York has seen. In 2022, the owner and captain of a chartered boat that flipped in the Hudson River off Manhattan — killing a 7-year-old child and an adult — pleaded guilty to the same federal charge Hernandez now faces, after prosecutors said he had been running paid tours without the required Coast Guard credentials.

The pattern is hard to ignore: unlicensed operators, overcapacity boats, and passengers who had no way of knowing the risk they were taking simply by boarding.

The Rescue

Police responded around 10:25 p.m. Saturday to a 911 call reporting an overturned vessel near Liberty Island, a stretch of water where tour operators regularly bring visitors close to the Statue of Liberty amid heavy commercial and recreational traffic. What followed was a large, multiagency emergency response involving air and water units, including scuba divers, searching the dark waters between New Jersey and Brooklyn.

Twelve of the fourteen people aboard were pulled from the water before police even arrived. Adam Schwartz, owner of the tour company Sea the City, said all but one of them were saved by the crew of the first boat on the scene — a small tour vessel outfitted with two full-size hot tubs. The survivors are in stable condition, according to the Coast Guard.

Rescue teams later recovered Sanchez and her daughter from the water. Both were taken to NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn, where they were pronounced dead.

A Family Torn Apart, and Held Together

The baby's father, Andres Garcia, survived the disaster, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The couple's 6-year-old son had stayed behind with a sitter that night — the boat trip itself was part of a birthday celebration, a law enforcement official told CNN.

Those who know Garcia describe a man now carrying an unimaginable loss. Antonio Russo, general manager of Il Punto Ristorante in Manhattan, where Garcia has worked for five years and was recently promoted to waiter, called him one of the hardest-working people he's ever known, and said no one deserves this — least of all Garcia. Russo added that the restaurant's focus now is simply on Garcia and his son's future, acknowledging plainly that no amount of money can undo what happened.

Neighbors expressed similar shock. "I'm in shock," Diego Naranjo told WABC, offering condolences to the family and hoping they find peace.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the tragedy Monday, saying his thoughts were with the family as they grieve a devastating loss he believes many New Yorkers share.

The Boat Itself

The vessel Garcia, his wife and their daughter had been aboard was a 22-foot bowrider — a common type of recreational powerboat, according to WABC. As of Sunday, it remained floating in the harbor, overturned with its hull exposed, as NYPD officers coordinated recovery efforts. Video shared with CNN showed a floating crane eventually lifting the boat and lowering it bow-first onto the deck of an Army Corps of Engineers vessel, while tourists aboard the nearby Staten Island Ferry watched the recovery unfold.

The Investigation Continues

The case is being handled by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, according to the NYPD, with the Coast Guard conducting its own inquiry alongside the Coast Guard Investigative Service and the NYPD.

Capt. Doreen McCarthy, the Coast Guard's Sector New York commander, said the agency remains committed to holding illegal operators fully accountable under the law in order to protect everyone using the region's waterways.

For a family celebrating a birthday on the water Saturday night, that commitment arrives too late to change what happened — but it may determine what happens to the man they say was piloting the boat without the license, or the passenger limit, the law required.