By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — After several Inwood residents reported seeing a man floating in the Harlem River, police confirmed that a body had been pulled from the water on Wednesday afternoon.
Inwood resident Jim Swimm was walking through the forest in Inwood Hill Park along the Harlem River shortly after 1 p.m. when he and a friend spotted something in the water.
“We joked that it was a body, but once we came down the hill we saw that it really was,” Swimm, 39, said, describing the body as male, with a short haircut wearing a white t-shirt.
Jason Minter, owner of Indian Road Café on West 218th Street and Indian Road, said he had not seen the body, but watched as swarms of police, ambulances and helicopters responded to the scene.
Twitter users posted messages about the body sighting. One user with the handle ErinNYC posted photographs as she watched at the scene.
The male body was pulled out of the water at approximately 2:23 p.m. by the New York City Police Department's Harbor Unit, according to police.
Residents in the area noted that the body had been placed in a black body bag on a pier next to Columbia University's Baker Field after 4 p.m. with police guarding the dock.
An investigation into the identity and cause of death is underway, police said.
