NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – An 11-year-old boy died after he was found Monday evening with a shoelace around his neck at an Upper West Side hotel that's being used as a shelter for migrant families.
The boy was discovered unresponsive around 5 p.m. inside the Stratford Arms Hotel at West 70th Street and Columbus Avenue.
The child was unconscious in the lobby of the building with a shoelace around his neck, according to police.
The Stratford Arms Hotel is one of hundreds of locations in the city serving as a shelter for asylum seekers.Google Street View
He was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai West, police said. He has not been identified.
A police investigation is ongoing as the medical examiner works to determine his cause of death. No arrests have been reported.
More than 140,000 migrants have arrived in the city since the spring of 2022. The city has opened over 210 emergency shelters in response, including 18 large-scale facilities termed "humanitarian relief centers."
Mayor Eric Adams visited Washington last week in an attempt to secure federal funding and push migrant policies, but he returned to the city conceding that "help is not on the way in the immediate future."
