NEW YORK CITY, NY – A tragic incident unfolded in a New York City hotel that hosts migrants when an 11-year-old boy was discovered in the lobby with a shoelace fastened around his neck. He was found unconscious at the Stratford Arms Hotel situated on the Upper West Side. Police declared that the young boy, a resident of the hotel, was found unresponsive at around 5 p.m.
Emergency response crews swiftly transported him to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was afterwards pronounced dead. An NYPD representative confirmed on Tuesday morning that the investigation into the incident is active and ongoing, with more details withheld until a family member can be informed.
The role of performing an autopsy and establishing the cause of death falls on the medical examiner, who has yet to comment on the situation. This particular hotel, located on West 70th Street, has been utilized as short-term accommodation amidst a surge in migrants arriving in New York over the past year. Authorities shifted single migrants from the hotel to a facility on Randall’s Island in September to accommodate migrant families, as reported by The New York Post.
Mayor Eric Adams recently set a 30-day duration limit for single adults in temporary shelter housing. However, his administration is grappling with the influx of over 140,000 migrants since last year. The mayor estimated a budget allocation of $12 billion in the next three years to manage the surge.
Despite these measures, budget cuts have been deemed necessary due to the city’s expenditure of $1.45 billion in fiscal 2023 on dealing with the migrant crisis. While these cuts extend across several departments, they are expected to affect key city services and programs, with potential layoffs of NYPD officers, cuts to education budgets, and reduced services for public libraries.