The body of a 6-year-old boy was pulled out of the Kankakee River at Beckman Harbor this afternoon.

The identity of the victim has not been released.

It is believed the boy was one of a few children playing on a boat dock about 75 feet or so east of the Kankakee Boat Club dock.

Emergency personnel from Kankakee and Kankakee County responded to the 6th Ward area at just after 3 p.m. today following a report of the child going into the river to retrieve a ball.

Once the child went into the water, nearby adults attempted to grab the youngster, but were unable to reach the victim.

 

The river has been swollen due to a series of heavy rains within the past three days.

At about 5 p.m., a boat equipped with a sonar search system appeared to have settled at the site which was no more than 20 feet off of the north river bank just east of the boat club.

Dive team members from MABAS Division 15, a mutual aid unit comprised of departments including Wilmington, Plainfield, Morris and Minooka, at the direction of the sonar system, were then able to physically grab the youngster and get the body out of the water.

Emergency personnel formed a corridor made of red tarps to shield the body from public view.

Kankakee Mayor Chris Curtis was on site for the duration of the rescue-turned-recovery operation. Curtis said a statement would be released before the end of the day.

Once it became clear the child had been located, the once talkative gathering of emergency personnel and onlookers fell to a hush with only the growling of idling fire truck engines and hovering news helicopters providing background noise.

Today's recovery marked the second drowning in the Kankakee River within the city limits of Kankakee.

On June 15, the body of Roger Brooks, 58, of Kankakee, was pulled from the Kankakee River only a short distance west of where this 6-year-old was found today. Brooks had fallen out of a fishing boat.