NEW YORK – The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a 40 year-old man who went missing off Beach 15th Street in Far Rockaway, Queens at approximately 3 a.m. this morning.
The Coast Guard received a report from Citywide that Hayward Patterson, from Jamaica, Queens, was in the water inside Rockaway Inlet. The reporting source stated that he and a group of three other people were swimming in waist high water when he did not return to the shore.
Responding agencies have searched approximately 220 square miles for Mr. Patterson in the areas of Rockaway Inlet and Atlantic Beach.
Coast Guard Sector New York and Sector Long Island Sound are both concurrently responding with rescue boat crews from Station Jones Beach and Station Sandy Hook.
Rescue crews from the New York Police Department marine and dive units and a Coast Guard Auxiliary airplane are also on scene searching for the missing swimmer.
A rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, N.J., rescue crews from Nassau County marine and aviation units, and an NYPD aviation unit also initially responded to the scene.
