Pearl Gabel/Pearl Gabel for New York Daily N
Parents of Avonte Oquendo, Daniel Oquendo (center) and Vanessa Fontaine (next to him), among dozens at vigil praying for safe return of boy who was last seen leaving his school Oct. 4
MTA officials took the unprecedented step of halting overnight track maintenance and ordered at least 200 workers to instead scour the tunnels for Avonte Oquendo, a missing, 14-year-old, autistic boy.
A Metropolitan Transit Authority memo obtained by the Daily News detailed an “all-out blitz to locate Avonte. . . . Every portion of track within the subway shall be inspected without fail” beginning Thursday evening.
The dragnet will comb all 468 stations, extending to stations at City Hall, Myrtle Ave. and elsewhere.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen, who is a track worker. “It’s actually brilliant. No one knows the subway system like track workers.”
Pearl Gabel/Pearl Gabel for New York Daily N
A woman holds a poster and a candle during at a vigil for Avonte Oquendo.
The search was scheduled to resume Friday night and some MTA workers were being called in to help on days off.
RELATED: PSYCHICS CALLED IN TO HELP FIND MISSING AUTISTIC BOY
Meanwhile, around 150 supporters of the Oquendo family joined a rally in Long Island City, Queens, outside of The Center Boulevard School where Avonte was last seen Oct. 4.
The teen is nonverbal and fascinated with trains, according to his family.
Marc A. Hermann/MTA New York City Transit
The MTA ordered 200 track workers to scour the city’s subway tunnels and stations in search of Avonte Oquendo.
“This is my worst nightmare,” said Avonte’s mother, Vanessa Fontaine, 48. “But every day, I wake up and say, ‘This is the day we’re going to find him.’ ”
Following a candlelight vigil, the supporters then split into groups to search by vehicles, on foot and in subways.
Oquendo family attorney, David Perecman, announced an anonymous donor offered $ 50,000 for Avonte’s safe return, bringing the total reward to $ 70,000. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said 50 cops are assigned daily to the search, in addition to a detective task force of roughly 50. Cops have also interviewed registered sex offenders around Avonte’s school.
RELATED: URGENT SUBWAY-TUNNEL SEARCH UNDERWAY FOR MISSING AUTISTIC BOY: COPS
Avonte Oquendo was last seen at his Long Island City, Queens school on Oct. 4.
The NYPD has also investigated tips from psychics who claimed to have information on the boy’s whereabouts.
“Someone may have taken him in to help him. . . . We’re certainly not giving up hope,” Kelly said, adding that NYPD marine and air units were also involved in the search.
On Thursday, Perecman filed a notice of claim against the city seeking $ 25 million for alleged negligence by the school officials charged with supervising Avonte.
The suit alleges a security guard allowed Avonte to walk out of the school at 12:45 p.m.
“They dropped the ball; there’s no other way to put it,” said Daniel Oquendo, Avonte’s father. “He was seen, but nobody did anything!”
On Tuesday, police even told the family they had found Avonte in East Harlem — though it turned out to be a case of heartbreaking mistaken identity.
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via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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