MARINE PARK — The family of a 20-year-old autistic man who went missing Tuesday is desperately searching for him and asking for the public's help in finding him, according to police.
Brian Gewirtz, who is both autistic and diabetic, according to a family friend, left his family's house at 1653 Coleman St. in Marine Park at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said. He told his sister he was going for a walk, according to Rosemary Lu, a colleague of Gewirtz's father at Bellevue Hospital who joined the search.
Gerwitz is 5 feet, 5 inches and 130 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, according to police. A missing poster for him said he has a brown beard and mustache and was wearing an orange shirt, blue jeans, tan work boots and a black jacket.
Lu said Gewirtz is shy but verbal. He should be approached while saying one's name in a normal voice, she said.
Lu and other coworkers searched Brooklyn parks for him last night. "He likes nature, he likes parks, libraries," she said, adding that he has disappeared before for an hour or so, but never for this long.
"You can only imagine, they can't even speak right now," she said of the family.
