A 46-year-old fisherman died after police say he jumped out of a boat into the Long Island Sound late Friday night because he feared a collision from another boat.
Authorities say the NYPD Harbor Unit responded to a call of a man in the water near the Throgs Neck Bridge just after 11:30 p.m. and discovered the man unconscious and unresponsive.
The man, who has been identified as Jesus Ortega, of the Bronx, was transported to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Ortega was fishing in a small boat with another man when police say they saw a larger boat approaching and panicked. Both men jumped into the water, but while the other man was eventually able to make it back into the boat unharmed, Ortega was not.
"He liked to fish since he was a little kid, all the time, everyday fishing," Ortega's mother, Milagros Quintana, said Sunday in between tears. "I can't believe he's dead, I can't. I miss him, I miss him."
Police say the Medical Examiner will determine the exact cause of death.
Meanwhile, Ortega's family says there are confused about what exactly went wrong, because Ortega was an experienced fisherman and a Navy veteran.
"It's crazy for a person to have so much experience in something, how? how? And no answers," said Ortega's relative, Frances Battista.
