Sister issues plea for help in search for boy, 17, feared to have jumped off Staten Island Ferry

Editor’s note: Suicidal thoughts and behaviors can be reduced with the proper mental health support and treatment. If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A desperate Port Richmond family issued a plea for help from the public and called on authorities to exhaust all options as they search for a 17-year-old boy who they say jumped off the Staten Island Ferry on Saturday morning.

Cathleen Pino, 27, is asking for anyone near or around the harbor to keep an eye out for her younger brother, Brandon, who reportedly made a distressing social media post before taking the ferry on Saturday morning.

“I want to let others know to please be on the lookout if they’re fishing or if they’re on their boats, keep a look out for Brandon,“ Cathleen said between tears.

Since Saturday, the Pino family has been frantically searching for Brandon, the baby of the family.

They’ve scoured areas in Brooklyn, Manhattan, New Jersey and Staten Island for the boy, a senior at Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School in New Springville.

“We’ve been having to be the ones to go at night, during the day, overnight... we’re taking turns, we’re not sleeping, we’re searching for him with flashlights across all borders,” Pino explained. “We’ve gone to Governor’s Island, back and forth. Family has taken ferries to see if we see anything.”

Brandon was last seen wearing a tan hoodie, black sweatpants and white shoes, his family told the Advance/SILive.com.

Search parties are planned at Rector Park and Pier 11 in Manhattan, Pebble Beach at Pier 2 and the basketball courts near Shore Road in Brooklyn at 8 p.m., and Battery Caitlin in Fort Wadsworth at 9 p.m.

“Bringing flashlights will be very useful, any help is appreciated,” said Pino. “Anyone can go near the shoreline of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Bayonne, Jersey City, northern New Jersey, and Manhattan if they can’t make it at the specified times.”

Desperate for answers

Cathleen called on authorities to maintain an active search for her younger sibling and said rescue efforts have been pulled back too soon.

She said the family wants a SCUBA team to search for Brandon, as well as interstate communication between New York and New Jersey agencies to conduct a broader search of the water.

While the NYPD maintains efforts are ongoing, the U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for Pino pending further developments, a spokesman for the agency confirmed Monday.

“I feel like that wasn’t enough time, more could have been done exactly that same day, that same night,” she said. “They should have searched for him more but the U.S. Coast Guard stopped the search even before night time and they didn’t notify us.”

“He is still a child and they’re not taking that into consideration,” she said.

In a statement to the Advance/SILive.com about the state of the search, the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information said the following:

“Officers from the 1st Precinct, along with the NYPD Harbor Unit, SCUBA team, Emergency Services Unit, and Aviation Unit responded to the scene and canvassed the waterway and shoreline. The NYPD Harbor Unit continues to search daily for the individual in the area where he was last seen and in nearby waterways.”

A living nightmare

The boy left his home in the morning hours of May 31 to go to his uncle’s house, family told the New York Daily News.

He posted to Instagram about his “last day on Earth” and said farewell in a group text, family said.

It was during the vessel’s trip between the St. George Ferry Terminal and Whitehall Station that Brandon jumped over the boat’s railings around 9:45 a.m., his sister said.

According to the elder Pino, afterward Brandon was seen treading the water.

“Despite of him actually taking the decision to jump off the ferry, there was some attempt for him to save himself,” she said. “Regardless of what his decision was, he did try to save himself.”

The Pino family established a fundraiser at gofundme.com/f/bring-brandon-home-a-mothers-plea to help finance the search.

“We are searching nonstop day and night, every day until we find him,” Pino vowed.

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Editor’s note: The Advance/SILive.com typically limits reporting on suicides to those that occur in crowded public places, involve public figures or, in special circumstances, where there is a larger public impact. If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.