[W]INOOSKI — Ali Muhinas, an 11-year-old boy who fell into the Winooski River below the Winooski One Hydro dam Tuesday evening was found dead Wednesday late afternoon.
Rick Hebert, chief of the Winooski Police Department, said a couple taking photos on the south bank of the river around 7 p.m. Tuesday saw Muhinas and three friends playing near the opposite bank.
The couple became concerned when they noticed three of the boys appear to panic, running to get a stick and reaching it out into the water. Hebert said the couple did not have a cellphone with them so they had to run to get help.
Almost immediately, they encountered a University of Vermont police officer, who contacted the Winooski police.
Hebert estimated emergency personnel arrived at the scene only a few minutes after Muhinas fell into the water.
Divers from the Vermont State Police scuba team and Colchester Technical Rescue were in the water Tuesday night, but the conditions were rough and visibility poor. Searchers instead relied mostly on sonar and pole-mounted cameras, Hebert said.
The search team contacted upstream river authorities overnight to reduce the volume of water flowing through the stretch where Muhinas fell in.
“Visibility increased from zero to 8 inches, and the water’s a foot lower now,” Hebert said.
Divers resumed the search Wednesday.
The drowning was the third in Vermont this month. A young child drowned in a swimming pool last week and a teen drowned in Lake Champlain on Tuesday.
