Published February 16, 2023 at 10:00 pm
New York State Park police rescued a five-year-old boy after he and his mother jumped into the Niagara Gorge.
On Monday (Feb. 13), 2023, at approximately 12:30 p.m., police responded to multiple calls about a woman and child who had fallen into the Gorge in Niagara Falls State Park near the Cave of the Winds attraction.
Police and paramedics arrived on the scene and, despite the icy terrain, were able to take an elevator down to the area where the mother and son were believed to have landed.
“Life-saving measures were administered to both the female and the child,” said Capt. Chris Rola of the State Parks Police.
The child was stable enough to be carried back up to an ambulance and waited in a parking lot until a Mercy Flight helicopter arrived shortly after 2 p.m. to fly him to Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo.
Rola said the child suffered a head injury, “but the mother did not make it and was pronounced dead at the scene,” adding that the body was “on its way to the coroner’s office.”
The victims’ identities will not be released to the public until further investigation.
Police say prior to the accident it is alleged that the woman and child were with her husband at the park and they are investigating to see if a prior event might have sparked the incident.
The husband was taken in for questioning along with a few other witnesses who were in the park.
The investigation is ongoing, but police suspect that it wasn’t an accident.
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