Police are investigating after a man was found dead aboard a boat on the Newtown Creek Sunday afternoon.
According to police sources, officers from the 108th Precinct received a 911 call of a person unconscious near Railroad and Greenpoint Avenues in an industrial portion of Long Island City at around 2:46 p.m. on July 6. Responding officers discovered a 52-year-old man unresponsive in the cabin of a docked boat.
EMS pronounced the man dead at the scene. His identity is pending family notification.
Police say the investigation is still in its infancy stages, and it is not currently known how the man lost his life.
Sources familiar with the investigation say the man was discovered by an acquaintance after he had not heard from him. The deceased lived on the boat and appeared to have been dead for more than a week; sources said the body was badly decomposed.
Police do not believe the death to be suspicious at this time. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
The Newtown Creek, a heavily polluted waterway undergoing continual cleanup, straddles the Brooklyn/Queens border.
