Family keeps vigil after teen jumps into Manhattan’s East River, is swept away (EXCLUSIVE)

The great-aunt of a teenager who jumped in the East River kept a sad watch Sunday over the lower Manhattan waterfront as police divers conducted their third day of searching for the missing boy.

Alena Godfrey, 60, believes her 13-year-old grandnephew, Kavion Brown, was goaded into jumping Friday by his friends as a dare.

“They need to go into social media, into these schools, and find out what kids was with him,” Godfrey said. “Because quite a few kids, I’m hearing, was with him.”

Kavion jumped into the water off East River Park near E. 6th St. just after 4 p.m. Friday, sparking a search including boats and divers from the NYPD Harbor Unit and an Aviation Unit chopper. As of Sunday, the boy still has not been found.

“He took his clothes off. He was in his basketball shorts and he went over in the water,” Godfrey said. “He never came back up.”

Godfrey, who lives in Midtown, stood sentinel by the river because Kavion’s grandmother — her sister —asked her to be there if police pull his body from the water.

An NYPD patrol car was parked on the pedestrian walkway near joggers and people with fishing poles as a soccer game was played on a nearby field.

“We watched the scuba divers and everything,” Godfrey said of the start of her vigil Saturday. “We kept watching and then when the sun was going down, you know, it’s not too much that they can do. We went home. I got up this morning. I did the same thing.”

The divers searched the water while the tide was low on Sunday.

“This water here, it’s a death trap,” she said. “I’ve said to these people, y’all need to do something about these fences and this water.”

Sergio Perryman, 32, a Manhattan resident and frequent parkgoer, said the water looks deceptively safe.

“If you fall into that, that could be rough,” he said. “You can see only a couple of inches deep and then there’s no telling what lies underneath in terms of debris, whatever, and then on top of that there’s virtually no exit points.”

Godfrey described Kavion as a typical, sports-loving teen and the oldest of four brothers.

“He’s a regular child,” she said. “He love his sports. He plays basketball. He plays with his brothers. They go to school every day.”

Kavion started high school this fall, she said.

“He listens to music. He plays video games. He loves his video games. But he’s a quiet child and he’s not a street child. He’s not a street child. They’re family oriented. Everything they do together,” she said.

“His family and his parents stay on top of him…. Those kids have Christmas every year, Halloween every year. They take them to a lot of amusement parks. They go to a lot of outdoor activities. They go go-kart riding and laser tag.”

“We need to know what happened,” she added. “My sister is not going to let this go. She said she needs to know what happened to her grandson.”