A promising young Antiguan student has lost his life in a tragic drowning incident at Buffalo Harbor State Park, leaving his family, including his mother — a former political candidate — and tight-knit community of friends reeling from overwhelming grief.
Kenyah S. Potter, 21, who had only marked his milestone 21st birthday less than two weeks before the fatal incident, was a resident and student in West Seneca, New York. According to official incident reports, he entered the park’s outer harbor waters shortly before midnight on Saturday, and never resurfaced above the water after going in.
Local authorities launched a large-scale coordinated search operation immediately after receiving the emergency call that Potter had gone missing. Multiple response agencies joined the effort, including personnel from the Buffalo Fire Department, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, the Buffalo Police Marine Unit, and the department’s specialized Underwater Recovery Team.
After hours of intensive searching, Potter’s body was recovered by members of the marine unit and underwater recovery team just after midnight Sunday. The Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office was dispatched to the recovery site to begin processing the case, and a formal autopsy has been scheduled to confirm the official cause and specific circumstances surrounding his death.
Potter’s mother, Gladys Potter, who previously ran as a candidate for Antigua and Barbuda’s United Progressive Party, is now confronting the devastating loss of her son. Since news of the tragedy broke, an outpouring of condolences and shared grief has flooded in from relatives, classmates, and friends, who all recall Kenyah as a gifted, driven young person with a full, bright future ahead of him.