Subway photo is not Avonte Oquendo, the missing teen with autism, says police
The search will continue as New York City police are still seeking help from the public to locate a missing teen with autism.
A new photo taken on the subway was thought to be Avonte Oquendo, age 14, the boy missing since October 4. Oquendo hasn’t been seen since exiting his school in Queens nearly a month ago.
Police located the individual who was photographed and determined it is not Avonte.
“It was not Avonte. This person whose photo it was was in the precinct with his parents,” a police spokeswoman told the Daily News.
“He was taken to a precinct, he was with his mother and it’s confirmed he was not Avonte.”
A teen thought a boy on an E or F line train might be the autistic boy, approached the look-a-like, asking, “Hey, are you Avonte?” according to Tony Herbert, president of the Brooklyn East chapter of the National Action Network.
The boy didn’t answer, Herbert said, and the inquiring youth — whose identity was unknown — snapped a picture before he got off the train.
He later posted the photo of a boy staring straight ahead and wearing a beige jacket and green khaki pants on his Facebook page, sources said. An administrator from the good Samaritan’s school saw the image and alerted police.
Since Avonte vanished leaving his Long Island City school, authorities have been frantically scouring the city’s subway tunnels in hopes of finding him.
