Body found floating in L.A. Harbor may be man who was swept away in Dominguez Channel

A body discovered floating in the Port of Los Angeles on Saturday morning is thought to be the man who was swept away by swift-moving water earlier this week in the Dominguez Channel in Gardena, authorities said.

The body was found at 9:10 a.m. in the Leeward Bay Marina in Wilmington, according the Los Angeles Fire Department. It was seen floating in an empty boat slip near 611 N. Henry Ford Ave., police said.

Lt. Ken Hawkes of the Los Angeles Port Police said the body matches the description of the man who was reported missing on Monday in Gardena when heavy rain prompted a water-rescue attempt in the Dominguez Channel.

Los Angeles County firefighters searched for the man for more than two hours after his girlfriend was rescued from the water in the flood-control channel. Authorities later called off the search and reclassified the case as a missing-person investigation.

“We believe it’s the missing person from Gardena that washed away in the channel,” Hawkes said.

The Port Police have been in contact with the Gardena Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on the matter, Hawkes said.

Two LAFD fireboats assisted Port Police and the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office in Saturday’s operation, according to Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the fire department.

ben.poston@latimes.com

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