Harvard Summer School student drowns in Charles River

The body of a Harvard Summer School student was recovered from the bottom of the Charles River Friday by the Cambridge Fire Department divers.

The student, identified as Tyler S. Greene, 18, from Georgia, was pronounced dead by drowning, the Harvard Crimson reported. According to the Middlesex County District Attorney Marian T. Ryan, the drowning was likely accidental.

Police responded to the scene around 8:45 p.m. Friday, after witnesses reported seeing a male “go into the Charles River [and] come up with arms flailing and go under and not come back up,” according to a press release. Divers recovered the body just after 9 p.m.; he was transported to Beth Israel and was later pronounced dead.

Sandra Naddaff, dean of Harvard Summer School, announced Greene’s death to summer school students in an email:”It is with deep sadness that I share that one of our students, Tyler Greene, tragically passed away yesterday evening.”

Greene’s family told the Boston Globe that the teen was at Harvard for a seven-week program to improve his computer programming skills after graduating from East Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia.

“He was my rock,” Greene’s mother,Leonie Grant, said. “It’s just an unfathomable feeling, words can’t express it right now.”