An undisclosed incident drew police officers to Hamilton Fish Pool on Pitt Street this afternoon, closing the pool.
Several swimmers waiting on the street in hopes of the public pool reopening said a fight had broken out a couple of hours ago, causing park personnel and police to clear out everyone who was trying to stay cool there. Park staffers stood at the gate turning people away, saying they could not discuss the cause of the closure. The NYPD is mum on the details as well. We will update if we learn anything new. If you were there and want to share what you saw, drop us a line.
[UPDATE, 6:45 p.m.] A Lo-Down reader sent us the following excerpt from an email from camp leaders that went out to families of day campers who were at the pool this afternoon.
In the interest of “no surprises,” I wanted to make you aware of a situation that occurred at the pool today. While our division was at the pool after lunch an altercation broke out between a member of the public and a lifeguard on the other side of the pool deck from where the campers were swimming. Other lifeguards got involved to break up the situation and it was contained rather quickly by the lifeguard staff.
[UPDATE, July 17, 11 a.m. ] We heard back this morning from parks department spokesperson Phil Abramson, who said that contrary to what staffers told the public yesterday afternoon, the pool did reopen yesterday evening. Here’s his statement:
Hamilton Fish Pool was briefly closed yesterday afternoon for a few hours due to an incident of disorderly conduct as an altercation ensued with an unruly patron. The pool reopened to the public at approximately 5:00 p.m. yesterday and remains open today.
Pool seemed open later.