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September 30, 2007
Police officer Sonia Garcia was found dead in the Bay Shore, Long Island home she shared with fellow NYPD officer Alexis Chaparro. Chaparro, an instructor at the POlice Academy, told the police he heard a shot and found Garcia, who worked at the 77th Precinct in Brooklyn, in their bedroom early in the morning. He called 911 at about 5:15AM. Chaparro was led out of the house in handcuffs, and Suffolk police questioned Chaparro for... [continue]
| September 29, 2007
Earlier this week, a Staten Island woman was arrested after she stabbed a 19-year-old suspected of stealing her son's iPod. A study released by the Urban Institute links a rise in violent crime between 2005 and 2006 to the proliferation of iPods. Though violent crime had been dropping up until 2004, iPod-envy started to spread. In New York, gadget-related crimes were a big news story in 2005: Though subway crime was dropping, iPod and cellphone... [continue]
September 28, 2007
Omesh Hiraman, the 22-year-old St. John's University student who caused panic when he brought a .50 cailber rifle on campus, will be arraigned today in his hospital room at Bellevue. Queens DA Richard Brown said that Hiraman was being "held on two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (with intent to use said weapon unlawfully against another and possession of a rifle in a building or grounds used for educational purposes) and several... [continue]
A pingpong hall was a Chinatown brothel's way into the wallets of public high school students. The Post reports that a brothel at 39 Eldridge Street was shut down after parents of Pace High School students realized the brothel owners were targeting their sons. Benjie Zheng and Ming Liuchang are accused of promoting the Robo-Pong Training Center with business cards that had a "contact number, an image of a topless woman - and a word,... [continue]
A 62-year-old woman was attacked in her Gerritsen Beach home when two masked men pushed their way in. WNBC 4 reports that the woman's husband ran downstairs to help fight off the attackers, who fled and left the scene in a black Jeep. According to WABC 7, the woman had been letting her cats back inside the house around 10PM when the men approached her. One of the men may have been armed with a... [continue]
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September 27, 2007
We received an email alert from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project about a clash between the SRLP and police officers last night in the East Village. Here is an excerpt of the SRLP's account:On the night of Wednesday, September 26, officers from the 9th Precinct of the New York Police Department attacked without provocation members of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and of its community. Two of our community members were violently arrested, and others... [continue]
New York City is cracking down on the brazen theft of tons of goods that occurs right out in public, practically on a schedule. The Department of Sanitation noticed that the volume of recyclable paper it was collecting was down 2% from the previous year - and in parts of Manhattan's East Side, the decline in paper pick-ups was 25%. That prompted an investigation that found that out of state unlicensed haulers were sneaking into... [continue]
The St. John's student who was found carrying a .50 caliber rifle in a black plastic bag on the school's Queens campus and caused the campus to be locked down yesterday afternoon was charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Omeash Hiraman, a 22-year-old finance student, had been wearing a Fred Flintstone mask and was stopped by campus security. A guard and another St. John's student who happens to be a police cadet restrained... [continue]
Trent Benefield, one of the victims in the undercover police shooting of three unarmed men outside a Queens nightclub last year, was arrested Tuesday night for attacking is girlfriend on a street. Plainclothes officers reportedly saw Benefield yelling, "F------ bitch!" before, per the Daily News, "he leaned out his car window and punched Nyla Page-Walthrus, 19, in the throat," "smacked her with the vehicle's door, grabbed her by the neck and hit her in the... [continue]
September 26, 2007
A student carrying a single shot .50 caliber rifle was arrested on the Queens campus of St. John's this afternoon. WNBC reports that the male student had the gun in a bag, as well as a President Bush mask. Also:Police sources said the man is a student of Guyanese descent who lived in a campus dorm. Sources said the student takes medicines for psychiatric issues and that police were investigating whether he had gone... [continue]
Eighteen-year-old Steven Molinaro, grandson of Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, was found guilty of criminal contempt of violating an order of protection. His family says that the jury made a bad decision and James Molinaro said, "I think being my grandson hurt him." Maybe so, but Steven Molinaro has been getting into trouble on his own. Last year, Steven Molinaro was arrested after beating up a 14-year-old Staten Island Advance newspaper boy Mark Veras,... [continue]
Yesterday morning, around 7AM, Queens resident Hope Miller was fatally hit by a truck turning right onto Houston Street from 6th Avenue. The driver, Roger Smiley, was fleeing the scene of an accident at Prince and 6th Avenue. Miller had been crossing Houston Street, near a construction site. 1010 WINS reported that the impact "knocked her out of her shoes." Smiley was arrested and charged with "leaving the scene of an accident, driving under the... [continue]
The NYPD's Hate Crime Unit is investigating numerous instances of anti-Semitic vandalism in Brooklyn Heights. Monday evening, swastikas were found painted on two synagogues, three buildings, and two cars, but by yesterday afternoon, over a dozen other markings were discovered (one brownstone also had an SS logo painted on it), as well as flyers with swastikas and slurs on cars' windshields. Remsen, Columbia, and Joralemon Streets, the Palmetto Playground and Sidney Place were vandalized. The... [continue]
September 25, 2007
Last night, two synagogues, three buildings, and a two cars in Brooklyn Heights were found with swastikas painted on them. The NYPD is investigating the incidents as bias crimes, and this comes after last Friday's discovery of swastikas and other graffiti on a Williamsburg yeshiva's bus. The Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and Chabad, both on Remsen Street, had swastikas on their staircases, while the apartment building at 45 Columbia Place had a four-foot swastika with "Kill... [continue]
September 24, 2007
The shadowy "Ninja Burglar" and his brazen break-ins - when homeowners are present - are worrying Staten Island residents. The Staten Island Advance reports the Iron Hills Civic Association is meeting with the highest ranking police officer in Staten Island, Assistant Chief Albert Girimonte, today and that a "walk-through tour of the neighborhood with police is tentatively slated for Wednesday morning." The Ninja Burglar's latest victims, Mary Ann and John Carlo, recalled the Friday night... [continue]
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September 24, 2007
Yesterday, various news reports mentioned that a Brooklyn couple had been mugged in Central Park around 8:45PM on Saturday night. And if you're wondering what they were doing there after dark, the Post has the explanation: The boyfriend had just asked his girlfriend to marry him. Luke Jacunski said that he chose the gazebo near Strawberry Fields to propose to Mimi Nagasse. Just after she said yes, a man holding a gun came along and... [continue]
September 23, 2007
Given the large number of people that work for the City of New York, it's inevitable that some will be charged with crimes in any given year. The New York Post, however, is highlighting some of the more noteworthy crimes committed by city workers in today's paper. They range from the relatively benign (a schoolteacher getting busted for smoking weed before heading into a show at the Beacon Theater) to the more serious (a drunk... [continue]
On Friday night, three young women were shot while sitting on a stoop in Flatbush on Friday night. Witnesses say that the gunman was riding a bicycle: He got off when opened fire around 10PM, aiming at two men. He missed the men, but ended up hitting the three women. Then he got on his bike again, heading towards Flatbush Avenue. The three friends were sitting outside 91 East 21st Street, near Caton Avenue. Police... [continue]
A Brooklyn couple walking in Central Park was mugged at gunpoint last night. The police say that the couple was in a gazebo near West 74th Street on the west side when they were robbed. Around 8:45PM, the robber approached them and took $300 and a cellphone from the woman and $100 from the man. The victims were not injured and the robber fled as soon as he got the money and phone. Police say... [continue]
September 22, 2007
A Todt Hill couple's home was broken into by the infamous Ninja Burglar last night. The craziest part: The wife ran into him. The Staten Island Advance reports that Mary Ann Carlo bumped into the intruder. Carlo said, "I started screaming, 'The Ninja is here! The Ninja! The Ninja!'" The Advance has the details AND gets a plug:At about 10:30 p.m., Mrs. Carlo turned off the television and headed downstairs toward the bedroom, where her... [continue]
On the eve of the holiest day in the Jewish faith, swastika and graffiti were found painted on a Brooklyn yeshiva bus. The bus, which had been sitting Williamsburg's Yeshiva B'nei Shimon Yisreal on Warsoff Place, was defaced on the interior with hand lotion. The bus' front door was found open, and it's believed the vandals got onto the bus through the unlocked back doors. The NYPD's bias unit is investigating the incident. The Daily... [continue]
September 21, 2007
Cops seized 160,000 pairs of counterfeit Nike shoes from six locations in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island after conducting a multi-year investigation to disrupt pirated merchandise. The New York Sun reports that it was one of the largest busts of counterfeit goods in US history and one of four recent successful operations that targeted purveyors of fake Microsoft, Motorola, and Nike products. The haul of bogus shoes was reportedly worth $7.1 million. The Staten Island-based... [continue]
Are the munchies a side effect of cocaine abuse? The NYPD busted a multi-million dollar drug ring where buyers could buy their cocaine and deli meats. The police found 4.5 kilograms of cocaine ($175,000 worth) and arrested 25 suspects. The Sun reports that the $4 million ring was operated out of establishments such as the Fiesta Meat Market in Washington Heights, billiards hall D.D. Café Billiard Sport, clothing store Yaharra (the headquarters), and bodega Broadway's... [continue]
September 20, 2007
A clash between teenagers in Fort Green has left a 16-year-old dead and a 17-year-old injured. The shooting took place around 6PM outside the Whitman-Ingersoll Houses on North Portland Avenue. A 16-year-old was confronted by three other people and shot in the neck and torso. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, while a 17-year-old, who was shot in the back and arm, is now in stable condition. It's unclear what caused the shooting. The... [continue]
September 19, 2007
There are likely many unsolved crimes in New York City's past, but this week, one 150-year-old case finally gets a sort of closure. The crime was well-documented as the Butchery on Bond Street. Love, money, Bellevue, dentists...all the usual makings for criminal behavior are accounted for, and amNewYork spoke to Benjamin Feldman, who has written a book, The Butchery of Bond Street. Harvey Burdell, a dentist who lived at 31 Bond Street, was "found in... [continue]
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September 19, 2007
The claim that Anthony Foturnato, one of three men on trial for hate crime murder of a gay man, was gay himself was not only strange to most everyone - it was apparently mysterious to the judge as well! Fortunato, Ilya Shurov John Fox, and Michael Timmins had lured Michael Sandy to meet them at a secluded location in Sheepshead Bay, via a gay chatroom, in 2006. Once there, they robbed and beat Sandy, who... [continue]
The Post reports that a woman running on the West Side managed to escape from a man who tried to rape her this past Saturday morning. According to the police, Jason Washington grabbed the 24-year-old woman from behind around 7AM. He then "fondled her and dragged her to an empty doorway near 12th Avenue and 58th Street." Luckily, a loud truck "startled or distracted" Washington and the woman ran away and called 911. Washington, who... [continue]
September 18, 2007
One of the defendants accused of murdering Michael Sandy as part of a hate crime a year ago is now claiming that he is innocent because he himself is a gay man. Michael Fortunato is on trial for the murder of Michael Sandy after he and three friends arranged to meet him in a secluded spot in Sheepshead Bay for a gay tryst. Instead, they ambushed the 29-year-old Williamsburg man who, fleeing his attackers, ran... [continue]
September 17, 2007
Tenants of the office building at 370 Lexington Ave. and East 41st St. are alleging that while they were barred from the building for more than a month during clean-up and decontamination of the area following July's midtown steampipe explosion, their offices were looted of cash, cellphones, electronics, and other portable valuables. The New York Post talked to the president of a graphic-arts company located in the building, who found that approximately $45,000 in items... [continue]
In late November 2005, police officer Dillon Stewart and his partner, Paul Lipka, stopped a 1990 Infiniti for a traffic violation (driving with dealer plates) in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. One of the men inside fired five bullets into the unmarked police car (Stewart and Lipka were uniformed), and Stewart (pictured) and Lipka proceeded to chase the car. But then Stewart realized that he had been shot -- the bullet had missed his bulletproof vest by... [continue]
September 16, 2007
An argument escalated into arson and then a murder-suicide, all in front of a small child, in Borough Park early yesterday morning. After setting their apartment on fire, police say that Christopher Flynn shot his girlfriend Christina Scarabaggio and then turned the gun on himself. Scarabaggio's 4-year-old daughter Bianca Perez was found crying over her mother's body outside. Flynn, who had a history of drug arrests, and Scarabaggio, a nursing student, had been dating for... [continue]
September 15, 2007
A pot AND stolen sneaker ring was busted yesterday by UPS inspectors who noticed some strange activities amongst some employees. The Daily News reports that inspectors set up a sting when they noticed that "tracking numbers showed the wrong packages were routinely getting loaded onto certain Bronx trucks." Oops! A loading dock supervisor and another employee were caught "loading 5 pounds of marijuana and stolen sneakers onto a truck," which would then be driven by... [continue]
The police are looking for a man they believe robbed three women in Manhattan subway stations. The attacks have taken place in the past week and a half during afternoon hours.September 5, 4:30PM, at the 23rd Street and 6th Avenue F station: A man pushed a 35-year-old woman down the stairs. September 8, 1:30PM, at the 8th Avenue and 34th Street A/C/E station: He pushed a 50-year-old woman "to the ground and took her purse"... [continue]
September 14, 2007
Just a few blocks away from the Pratt Institute, a man died after being shot three times on Clifton Place yesterday afternoon. Lawrence Sumpter, a Staten Island resident who had grown up in the Clinton Hill neighborhood, was being chased by a gunman. Sumpter headed to 22 Clifton Place, a brownstone in renovation; a witness told the Post that Sumpter tripped and his pursuer "just got over him and emptied [his gun]." Another woman told... [continue]
Early this morning, a pedestrian was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver. WABC 7 reports that the police received "several 911 calls for a motor vehicle accident involving a pedestrian lying in the roadway" after 1:10AM. The victim, a man in his 30s who officials believe may be homeless (he had no ID), was pronounced dead at St. Vincent's Hospital. A 51-year-old man, who was driving a 2006 red Chevy Avalanche, has been arrested... [continue]
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September 13, 2007
Just last month Foxy Brown declared she was pregnant right as she was facing a jail sentence. Convenient! Today it's being reported that maternity accommodations won't be needed after all, because (not surprisingly) she's not really preggers. After violating probation in August, Foxy's defense lawyers told the court that she was pregnant. Yesterday her manager Chaz Williams said: "And to the pregnancy rumors, this is the official statement: She is not pregnant." Yes, "rumors" tend... [continue]
Two groups of teenagers on an northbound 1 train got into a fight that ended up with two teen slashed. The fight started around the 59th Street/Columbus Circle stop or the 96th Street stop, and then it spilled out onto the platform at 110th Street/Cathedral Parkway. Two were slashed with a knife and another teen was beaten with a cane; all were treated at St. Luke's Roosevelt. A witness told WABC 7, "I was in... [continue]
Police say a man confessed to the brutal killing of his girlfriend's 61-year-old mother on Tuesday. And Newsday says that among Joseph Cazeau's "stunning" admissions was that he was having an affair with his victim. Cazeau and 42-year-old Mary Luzincourt had been together for 12 years, had three children, and were living on St. John's Place in Crown Heights. The couple had been having so many problems that Tuesday afternoon Luzincourt says she was seeking... [continue]
September 12, 2007
The Brooklyn judge presiding over the case of Darryl Littlejohn, the suspected murderer of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, wants the trial to start as early as next January, even as Littlejohn is facing unrelated charges of kidnapping in a Queens courtroom. Judge Cheryl Chambers ordered another pretrial hearing for October 11 and wants both the defense and prosecution to come to a mutually agreeable date upon which they can get the murder... [continue]
September 11, 2007
Prosecutors painted a disturbing story of how 20-year-old Boitumelo McCallum was killed by a boyfriend. Last month, McCallum's body was found in her mother's Washington Square Village apartment, and quickly police zeroed in on her boyfriend, Michael Cordero. Police found Cordero after he slit his wrists on a rooftop and he had apparently confessed to killing McCallum. Prosecutors believe that Cordero was jealous because McCallum was having a party that included other men and had... [continue]
A Westchester couple were charged with promoting prostitution from their home. And what's more, the Journal News describes thirty-four-year-old Robert Werner and his 32-year-old wife Heather Mazzenga as "victims of the housing market"! The New Rochelle Police had been doing their rountine monitoring of Craigslist and became suspicious when they saw a few ads, including one that said, "Grand Opening Special! Hot models, soft sensual touch...New Rochelle has Westchester's first and only member's only club... [continue]
A ballistics report confirmed that Annemarie Marchiondo, the 17-year veteran police officer who was shot during a confrontation at the 176th Street 4 platform last Friday, was injured partly by friendly fire. Marchiondo and two other plainclothes cops had stopped three men who were walking between subway cars and asked them disembark the train. One of the men, Juan Calves (also referred to as Juan Calbett), grabbed Marchiondo into a headlock and pulled out a... [continue]
September 10, 2007
In May of 2000, five employees of a Wendy's in Flushing were killed in the basement, while two others were injured. John Taylor and Craig Godineaux were arrested and charged with the murders. While Godineaux pleaded guilty to the crimes and is serving a life sentence without parole, Taylor, a former Wendy's employee, was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2002. In the years since Taylor's sentence, the NY State Court of Appeals ruled,... [continue]
September 9, 2007
Police officer Annmarie Marchiondo, the 17-year NYPD vet who was shot during a Friday night confrontation with convicted felon, has been recovering at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. Marchiondo was shot three times (in the hip, ankle and foot), and her husband said, "I'm just happy she's OK...She was almost ready to retire." The Friday night shoot-out occurred at the 176th Street No. 4 station in Mount Hope. Marchiondo and two other cops, all... [continue]
September 8, 2007
A judge sentenced Foxy Brown to a year in jail yesterday for violating the terms of her three-year probation. Officials asked that her probation be revoked following an incident in August when Brown (neé Inga Marchand) allegedly assaulted a neighbor with her BlackBerry wireless device. Brown was contrite and promised to adhere to whatever probation conditions the judge would set forth, but apparently the BlackBerry incident was the last of a long string of probation... [continue]
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September 8, 2007
A female transit officer was shot several times and a gunman was killed yesterday evening on a subway platform in the Bronx. CBS2 reports that three plainclothes transit officers spotted two men traveling between subway cars at around 5:20 pm and removed them from the train at the 176th St. station on the 4 line. As they walked down the platform, one of the men, 51-year-old Juan Calves, put officer Annmarie Marchiondo in a headlock... [continue]
September 7, 2007
Last month women were being attacked in Williamsburg, and now it's being reported the number of muggings have gone up significantly in the area as well (though muggings are not uncommon in the area). The Brooklyn Paper reports that the victims all seem to be...drunk hipsters (though they use the phrasing: slightly tipsy pub-crawlers and late-night subway commuters). Whatever you want to call these particular locals, Williamsburg's 90th Precinct officers say that this demographic is... [continue]
The police arrested the boyfriend of a woman found murdered in a Soho apartment. The victim, Denise Deperrie, was found by her roommate on Wednesday and police immediately suspected Juan Rios, her boyfriend who had slashed her with a samurai sword in July. The Daily News reports that Rios had checked himself into a hospital yesterday, saying, "I did a bad thing." Deperrie and Rios met at a methadone clinic. According to Newsday, Rios attacked... [continue]
A Staten Island man was about to fall asleep early Thursday morning only to be woken up when someone broke into his apartment - little did he know that it was the 'Ninja Burgler'. Phil Chiolo heard his cat Tippy growl, which was unusual, before hearing something fall downstairs. While in the kitchen investigating the sound, Chiolo saw someone dressed in, "a Halloween-like ninja outfit, with just his eyes peering out." Soon afterwards, the ninja... [continue]
The cops were looking for an alleged gang member in Bed-Stuy when they found something very disturbing - a 4-day-old baby in a Timberland shoe box. After arresting the 21-year-old they were looking for, police found the baby girl in an apartment that is described as filthy. Also found in the apartment was a loaded .45-caliber pistol, ammo, and a small amount of cocaine. Police arrested the 19-year-old mother for endangering the welfare of a... [continue]
September 6, 2007
Police are investigating the death of a woman found in her apartment. A roommate of the 36-year-old woman found her alone in the Crosby Street (at Grand) apartment - with two stab wounds. The roommate had been away over the Labor Day weekend and apparently neighbors had noticed a smell. WABC 7 reports, "No one in the neighborhood seems to know the victim who was reportedly staying with an ex-boyfriend after having issues with a... [continue]
September 5, 2007
It's time for the tabloids to make a number of bada-boom puns, as the police confirmed that it was a pipe bomb that was set off yesterday morning outside the West 29th Street building owned by Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli and his wife. The NYPD said there no known threats to the Imperiolis and during a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said, "While there certainly is no evidence that this was terrorism, we are taking... [continue]
The court documents revealed a disturbing incident from the weekend: Thirty-three-year-old William Johnson poured rubbing alcohol on his girlfriend and then lit her on fire. The girlfriend, Cindy Zucker, is now in critical condition, with burns on 20-35% of her body. Around 4:40AM, an argument between Johnson and Zucker grew ugly. The police happened to be at 58 Beekman Street in Port Richmond on another call. The Post reports that when the cops knocked at... [continue]
September 4, 2007
The MTA Bridge and Tunnel police noticed that a truck had an "unstable load" and asked the driver to pull over yesterday. Inside the rig, the cops discovered 210 pounds of marijuana. The Daily News reports that the seven bricks of marijuana were hidden among "pallets of shredded coconuts" (and there is a reference to the driver being 'coco-nuts'). And the Post says the driver claimed he was headed to Long Island, but the cargo... [continue]
September 3, 2007
Early this morning, a man died after being shot "next to a token booth" at the southbound Broadway N platform in Queens. WABC 7 reports that the victim was 19 and he was shot in the back of the head around 1:15AM. A witness said, "I heard, 'Boom! Boom! Boom! There was a lot of blood. He had a big hole in his head." According to WCBS 2, there were a number of witnesses because... [continue]
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September 2, 2007
Mr. Black, a club at 643 Broadway (near Bleecker) was raided early yesterday morning. Thirty-two people were arrested, including 17 employees, on charges ranging from suspicion of drug possession and suspicion of selling drugs. Apparently many bags of cocaine and ecstasy were found. DJs Are Not Rockstars have a weekly gig at the club. Paper magazine has called the club a "downtown, gay hotspot." And the MySpace page for Mr. Black says it's "where anyone... [continue]
Clarence Dean, a registered sex offender in Florida and Alabama, was charged in the murder of a young woman whose body was found at a Times Square hotel. While cleaning a room on Thursday, a housekeeper at the Hotel Carter, on West 43rd Street near 8th Avenue, noticed some plastic bags under a bed and realized there was a body inside. Dean had checked out of the room on Wednesday. Dean reportedly told the police... [continue]
September 1, 2007
The police are questioning a man who had been registered a room in a West 43rd Street hotel where a woman's body was found on Thursday. Clarence Dean, a 35-year-old "fugitive" sex offender from Alabama, had checked out of the room 608 at the Hotel Carter, an inexpensive hotel near 8th Avenue popular with tourists. He was not charged with any crime, but police picked him up after seeing him at Park Avenue and East... [continue]
For the fourth time in two months, a Staten Island man ignored an order of protection his estranged wife had against him and drove into her home with his Cadillac. Peter Quartano, armed with a rifle, barricaded himself in the Venus Lane house he used to share with his wife Eileen and was arrested after a four-hour standoff. Oh, and the neighbors saw him "drinking on the back porch in his underwear." Nearby residents were... [continue]