WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Wilkes-Barre police and fire departments responded around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday to what they thought was a person in the river that needed to be rescued—a call the fire chief says the department has had several times this summer.
The Veterans Memorial Bridge on Pierce Street connecting Kingston and Wilkes-Barre was lined with first responders. Crews were called in for a rescue, but it quickly turned to a recovery.
"When there's a call to the river, obviously, we respond emergent always with the understanding that the patient is still alive when we get there, so we respond in that mode. Today, we did a similar thing except we brought a police officer out because of the surveillance Information we had early on with the dispatch information," said Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney.
The coroner was called not long after the rescue boat got to the location of the body in the Susquehanna River. Crews searched the river banks for any more information while the state police helicopter was also searching from above.
The fire chief says the water levels were making the recovery difficult.
"With the river being as low as it is, it's definitely a challenge to maneuver the boat and get it to where we needed to go."
People walking along the bridge saw the commotion on the bridge and wondered what was going on.
"What, did someone jump? did someone escape from the prison over here and jump? So we came to investigate. It is really sad to see because that's someone's family member," Lacey Caprari said.
Wilkes-Barre and state police are still investigating. The identity of the victim has yet to be released.