SANTA ANA, Calif. — The mother of a 7-year-old who authorities said was thrown overboard by his father during a sightseeing cruise around California’s Newport Harbor has thanked eyewitnesses who called 911, saying she was “extremely grateful.”

Christin Briles wasn’t on the boat Sunday when the incident occurred, attorney Eric Dubin said. But she said in a statement Wednesday that eyewitness reports “absolutely confirm what her two boys have told her happened on the boat.”

Earlier Wednesday, the man in the incident denied that he angrily threw the child overboard because he wouldn’t stop crying.

“Honestly, what it was was just boys roughhousing and then screwing around and then jumping off the edge of the boat,” Sloane Briles told the syndicated show “Inside Edition.”

“We were just screwing around, just showing off, just being guys,” he said. “It’s not like I threw him off. We went together. It was just like a hand-in-hand thing.”

In 911 tapes released Tuesday, passengers expressed shock and disgust after seeing Briles toss the boy into the water.