Witnesses told emergency officials that the 5-year-old boy was playing with some older kids at the edge of the 63rd Street harbor next to the water. The older kids ran away from the area, but no one saw the 5-year-old running with them. Witnesses on the other side of the harbor saw the boy struggling in the water and called for help.
"The fire department was summoned to the scene here at 63rd Street and the lakefront for a child in the water, and that was confirmed, and the child was gathered out of the water by our helicopter diving crew, two men that pulled him out of the water," said Dep. Dist. Chief Malone.
The water is about 15 feet deep at the mouth of the harbor.
Crews estimated that they got to the boy within eight or nine minutes. However, he may have been in the water a total of 20 minutes.
