A massive five hour search by Boston Police and Massachusetts State Police ended tragically with the discovery of the missing 7 year-old boy, Kyzr Willis’ body in the water on Tuesday around 7pm.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans told reporters that the boy was pronounced dead after recovery. “Our hearts break for the family,” said Boston Police Commissioner William Evans.
Willis was last seen around 2pm at the beach at the Curley Community Center where he was attending a summer day camp. The day camp will remain closed while police investigate. The camp is run by the city’s Boston Centers for Youth & Families.
Mayor Marty Walsh released the following statement:
“The City of Boston is devastated to learn of the tragic loss of Kyzr Willis, and I will be working closely with Boston Centers for Youth and Families and the Boston Police Department until we know exactly what happened. My heart is broken for the Willis family and my thoughts and prayers will be with them.”
Sad, my thought and prayers are with the family and the community.
My thoughts and prays are with the family and community.
Where were the adults at the day camp? He was last seen at 2pm, I mean really? Who was suppose to watching him? Thoughts and Prayers going to the family of this precious little boy. People think I’m crazy for not sending my children to camp.
Sad to see how low Boston kid program hassunk. Rotten supervision (no swim buddy rule in place) .
We had this in place 70 years ago in Southie.
The combination of poorly-trained teenaged staff, and not enough adult overseers to train them better, combined with the clear lack of a buddy system in place more than likely created the possibility for this preventable tragedy to happen.
I’ve never been a Southie resident at all, but when I attended both day camp and overnight camp during the mid-1950’s through the mid-1960’s, there was much more adult supervision, plus a “buddy” system in place in all the camps that I attended while I was a kid growing up.
Something was lacking in the supervision in this particular day camp, and changes must be made right away, if only to prevent any re-currences of this horrific tragedy in the future.