NYPD ‘optimistic’ about finding autistic teen

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

More than a week after an autistic teen who can’t speak vanished from his Queens school, an NYPD official said police are “optimistic” about finding him.

“We’re still pretty optimistic and hopeful that we will find Avonte and deliver him back home to his family,” Phillip Banks, the NYPD’s chief of detectives, said at a press conference Saturday.

Avonte Oquendo was last seen skipping away from his school on Oct. 4.

Banks said more than 80 tips about the boy have come in but none of the leads have led to sightings of the boy.

“We’ve done an extensive search; that search entails aviation units using the best technology we possess,” said Banks, adding that the NYPD’s harbor and SCUBA units were also searching for Avonte.

Click here to read more.