3-year-old pushed into Lake Michigan has died, family source says

CHICAGO (WGN) — A 3-year-old boy whose aunt is charged with pushing him into Lake Michigan has died, according to a family source.

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, a 3-year-old boy with a description matching the boy who was pushed off Navy Pier in Chicago last week — along with a matching time and place of the incident — died at 10:16 a.m. Sunday morning.

The boy was pushed into the water off Navy Pier in the early afternoon of Sept. 19, according to police reports.

The boy was in the care of his grandmother before the incident, reports show. When his grandmother went upstairs to change, the boy’s aunt, 34-year-old Victoria Moreno, took him out of the home, a police source told WGN.

An incident report said Moreno initially told police she was a witness before admitting she was the boy’s aunt. She said she brought him to Navy Pier to “go on the rides,” the report said, but he was “acting up” so she “let go of his shirt and [he] fell in the water.”

The 3-year-old was in cardiac arrest when he was lifted from the water off Navy Pier around 1 p.m. He arrived at Lurie Children’s Hospital in very critical condition following multiple heart attacks and seizures. He was in the water for about 30 minutes before he was rescued.

The police source told WGN that Navy Pier surveillance video appears to show a woman throwing a 3-year-old boy into Lake Michigan. Police also said Moreno did not attempt to rescue the boy.

Moreno was charged with felony attempted first-degree murder and felony aggravated battery of a child. New charges against her are now expected.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to assist the family with medical expenses.