4 sought in suspicious drowning death of boat captain at DuSable Harbor

Detectives were looking for four people who may have been involved in the drowning death of a beloved boat captain during a violent Labor Day weekend that garnered the attention of President Donald Trump.

An internal police alert displayed photographs of two women and two men who police were seeking to identify in the homicide investigation being conducted by Area 3 detectives.

According to a source, Nabil Abzal was apparently injured — possibly by one of the four pictured in the alert — prior to falling into the water.

One of them allegedly pushed Abzal, who fell and hit his head and then fell into the water, the source told the Sun-Times.

Abzal, fondly known in the boating community as “Captain Bill,” was pulled from the DuSable Harbor around 3 a.m. Saturday and pronounced dead at the scene, Chicago police said.

Abzal’s official cause of death was drowning but the manner of his death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Abzal was one of nine people killed during the long Labor Day weekend — Chicago’s most violent of the summer — that also saw more than 50 people shot. President Donald Trump threatened to send the National Guard into the city putting local crime rates in the national spotlight. A WBEZ analysis found that a three-month summer span saw the fewest murders in Chicago in 60 years.

He never met someone who wasn’t a friend,” his wife Laura Abzal told the Sun-Times. “If you were a stranger in the street who needed help, he’d stop.”

No arrests have been announced by police.

Anyone with information on the incident can reach out to Area 3 detectives at 312-744-8263.

Tom Schuba and Cindy Hernandez contributed.

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