Crews Continue Search For Missing Teen In Delaware River
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia police are searching for a teen boy who went missing after jumping into the Delaware River.
"We were just trying to have fun like usual teenagers do," said Kendell Cesar the victim's friend.
Cesar says he and three friends were jumping off the boat dock at near Pleasant Hill Park to cool off Friday night when fun turned to panic.
"We were jumping in at first and the current we didn't feel anything and then the last time we jumped in before we were going to go home, we jumped in and next thing you know we all started just moving," he said.
The victim, identified by family as 16-year-old Antoine Fox never made it to shore, apparently caught in the swift current of the Delaware River.
"One of my friends he tried to get him and then I tried to get him too but the current was so strong where we couldn't really help him cause we started struggling ourselves," Cesar said.
Eyewitness Stephen Smith says the scene was chaotic along the dark river.
"They were all panicking and they tried going in looking for him and I guess the current took him out," said Smith. "Everybody came running over and that's then the fire trucks came"
Fox's family provided us this picture and told us his Antoine was not a good swimmer. Marine police searched along the river bank all day Saturday, as family and friends prayed and cried together.
Cesar says he and Fox were classmates at Abraham Lincoln High School and played football together.
"It's just a teenager thing like in the movies where they all jump together, we tried to do that last one together and …"
Fox's father says his son told his family he was staying with a friend nearby overnight, so it's unclear why the boys would end up at Pleasant Hill Park, 30 minutes away in the dark.
The search was expected to resume in the morning.