Results tagged “arrest”

On Wednesday afternoon, DOT officials had met with the pastor at Our Lady Queen of Peace church on Staten Island to discuss the problem of reckless drivers on the street that runs by the church and its school. Rev. Pancrose Kalist warned city officials about the dangerous situation on New Dorp Lane, where crossing guards routinely witness drivers blasting by them and running the red light. Six hours after his meeting, an elderly married couple was killed by a hit-and-run driver with numerous traffic violations who sped through a red light.

The 15-year-old Bronx girl who was put in a medically-induced coma after taking a stray bullet to the skull has spoken for the first time since the incident, eight days ago. A source tells the Daily News that Vada Vasquez's first word was "Mom." Her condition has been upgraded to stable and a spokeswoman at Lincoln Hospital says, "She's improving. She's in stable condition and recognizes family members."

Artist and rabble rouser Robert Lederman sent us word that he was arrested this past Saturday afternoon on the 14th Street section of the High Line. He was issued 5 summonses, handcuffed and taken to the Precinct by Park Enforcement Patrol officers, after High Line staff called the NYPD.

Yesterday, tween singing sensation (or so Wikipedia leads us to believe) Justin Bieber was scheduled to make an appearance at the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island. Apparently the 15-year-old's fans were really excited to see him, because thousands flocked to the mall, forcing the police to cancel the event. Newsday says that "a crowd of 3,000 young girls and their parents started aggressively pushing and shoving."

There's not much background on this video depicting the violent arrest of a demonstrator last night, but it's still a bracing way to start your day. New School students and their comrades brought the ruckus downtown to show solidarity with students at the University of California, who are occupying various administration buildings on multiple campuses to protest budget cuts and an increase in student fees, among other grievances.

"We got into a fight about him cheating on me. I cut him with a box cutter, and he punched me in the face," 41-year-old Lisa Gibbs told cops after she was arrested Oct. 30th. "I punched her in the face because I was defending myself when she tried to cut me with the box cutter," her husband Christopher Binns, 34, told police. There's not much more to add—except that Gibbs is also a public school principal at Brooklyn's School for Global Studies. The school might ring a bell if you recall the great laxative prank of 2008 that went so terribly wrong.

A 16-year-old boy has confessed to the Monday afternoon shooting that left a Bronx girl in a medically-induced coma. Carvett Gentles, a sophomore at Bronx Leadership Academy who rarely attended class, had no criminal record before this week, and police believe that's why the .40-caliber pistol used in the shooting was passed to him, in a street version of "hot potato." The four other young men who were with him Monday afternoon all have extensive arrest records, and those boys—also members of a Bloods gang spin-off called "Gorilla Stone Blood"—passed the gun around until it ended up in Gentles's hands.

Police have arrested five young men allegedly involved in the altercation that led to the shooting of innocent bystander Vada Vasquez, a 15-year-old Bronx girl who was chatting with a friend after school Monday afternoon when a stray bullet struck her in the head, shattering inside her skull. She is currently in critical condition and on a ventilator. The bullets were directed at Tyrone Creighton, 19, who was hit in the back as he fled five men who had confronted him outside a bodega near Bronx Latin School. Police believe revenge was the motive.

A Manhattan Federal Court judge did double duty as the fashion police yesterday, when he ordered a groovy balloon artist who's suing police to go change out of his tie-dyed T-shirt, tie-dyed patchwork overalls, and far-out multicolored sneakers. Russian immigrant Alexander "Sasha" Alhovsky, 40, was in the court room during jury selection for the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages over claims that the NYPD used excessive force when he was taken into custody in June 2006, on suspicion of planting a fake bomb inside an UES Starbucks three days earlier.

Metallica just finished up a two night run at Madison Square Garden, and at least one fan is likely still reeling from Sunday night's show. The NY Post reports that 33-year-old New York firefighter, Gerard Weihe, got ejected from the show by security guards (for standing on chairs and "making a racket"). After being tossed, he came back for an encore and kicked in a plate-glass window! So hardcore... and so arrested.

The father of a 14-year-old Connecticut girl filed a missing persons report with police after his daughter left the house Saturday morning and didn't come home that night. The unidentified girl wasn't answering her cellphone, but police were able to track her down using her the phone's signal, finally locating her Sunday afternoon in a room at the Belleclaire Hotel on the Upper West Side. Inside the room, police found condoms, a vibrator, and an 18-year-old Belgian man named Anthony Freson, who swears the girl told him she was 18 when they "met" in a Yahoo chat room in April.

A Bensonhurst man was arrested on Wednesday for selling a dark green liquid mixture of alcohol and marijuana. Yes, liquid marijuana! It's news to us, and Capt. Gerard Dowling of the Manhattan South narcotics division says "it has not been seen around here before." The suspect, 32-year-old Anthony Briordy, told cops a four-ounce dose of it was stronger than one "marijuana cigarette," as the Times daintily puts it.

The AP reports that Bronx resident Florian Penev was arrested by Connecticut police who say he "offered strangers paid sex with his wife in an Internet ad has been fined $2,000... Norwalk police say they arrested Penev and his wife, 36-year-old Zdravka Zotkova, in June after officers responded to their Craigslist ad, which offered sex with Zotkova at a Norwalk hotel." Penev pleaded guilty to misdemeanor prostitution conspiracy charge and paid a fine, while his wife "was allowed into a court program that will result in prostitution charges against her being dismissed if she completes it." And why was Penev advertising his wife? He said he lost his job as a graphic designer.

An Australian businessman was arrested at The Standard Hotel Saturday after allegedly trying to rape a chambermaid. The unidentified 28-year-old woman claims the assault occurred after she began cleaning Matthew Moorhouse's $400-a-night room at 4:25 p.m. "He just asked me, 'Where are you from? How long have you been here?'" Then Moorhouse, 42, allegedly asked her if she had a boyfriend. When she said no, "He asked me, 'Do you think I'm handsome?' He went to hug me. And then he pushed me onto the bed."

Two graffiti taggers who have been leaving their mark all over Brooklyn Heights have been caught by the coppers. The Brooklyn Paper reports that “Rex” and “Guder” have been hitting the area for months, with one local saying it "makes you feel like your neighborhood hasn’t been maintained, like back in the 1970s.” Fear not graf-phobes, earlier this week "Officer Freddy Ahmetaj of the 84th Precinct collared the painters outside a building on Henry Street at Clark Street."

Cops arrested two men yesterday suspected of shooting and killing a 24-year-old, chucking their guns in trash can in front of a police precinct, then reporting to police that they were the victims of a shooting. Officers at the 73 Precinct in Brownsville spotted the suspects ditching their firearms inside a garbage can before entering the station house on Thomas Boyland Street just after 6:15 pm.

A man suspected in 14 subway robberies since January was arrested yesterday in North Carolina. Rasheem Williams, 37, who had been one of the NYPD's most wanted criminals, was apprehended, as were two other fugitives wanted by the cops, in Rocky Mount, N.C.

It comes as no surprise that the off-duty NYPD detective who fatally struck an elderly pedestrian early Friday morning in the Bronx has an alcohol problem. Detective Kevin (Spike) Spellman had a blood alcohol level of 0.21 percent—more than twice the legal limit—almost six hours after the accident. Now it's being reported that this isn't the first time booze has caused problems for Spellman and others.

On Monday, the Allegheny County District Attorney dropped all charges against two Jackson Heights-based anarchists accused of listening to police scanners and sharing riot cops' movements with demonstrators on Twitter during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlaeger were arrested on September 24th in a Pittsburgh hotel room, where they were found sitting in front of personal computers listening to both police and EMS scanners. On Monday, lawyers for the men were poised to argue for the unsealing of a secret 18-page affidavit authorizing the raid, but then the prosecution unexpectedly withdrew all charges. A spokesman for the district attorney offered this explanation:

After an extensive review of the facts and circumstances underlying those two arrests... there appears to be sufficient evidence to suggest that certain acts that occurred during the G-20 summit were not isolated incidents confined to Allegheny County but instead may have been related to more expansive activities that went beyond the Pittsburgh G-20 in both time and substance. That being the case, a determination was made that until further investigative activities by law enforcement agencies can be completed, it would be more prudent to have the current charges withdrawn rather than prosecuted at this time.

Police arrested a 23-year-old man in connection with two rapes in the Rockaways last month. The Daily News reports that DNA evidence linked Malcolm Johnson to the crimes. He was charged with "rape, sexual assault, robbery, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon."

This tweet from Laura Holder just caught our eye: "Seen at polling station (e.g. grade school): 1 man, over-6-foot tall, towering, 100% naked. Number of police: 12. Number of police cars: 4." The Local also heard about the naked man, and a volunteer for Bill Thompson says he saw the unidentified man near PS 56 in Clinton Hill, which was closed for Election Day. The volunteer says the man approached "talking all kinds of crazy stuff — he said he was a direct pure-blood descendant of Jesus." (Sounds like a Rev. Billy voter?)

The Daily News adds a new detail to the "road rage" arrests of Dominique Sharpton and Kathy Jordan—the daughter and ex-wife of the Reverend Al Sharpton. Apparently 23-year-old Dominque was pulled over by cops after allegedly driving through a red light, so she called her mother who "rushed to the scene to find Dominique in the back of a police car, Sharpton's attorney said." The women argued with the cops, eventually being taken to the stationhouse and charged with "disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration." Their lawyer said, "It seems they were arrested simply because they asked why the ticket was being given." The Reverend Al, aside from his Tweets yesterday, remains quiet on the issue.

According to the Post, the ex-wife and daughter of the Reverend Al Sharpton "were arrested [Friday] night after berating a pair of Harlem cops who pulled them over for running a red light in the wrong lane to get around their slow-moving, unmarked cruiser." The incident began at West 110th Street and 8th Avenue, when Dominique Sharpton, allegedly frustrated by the unmarked cruiser, "honked her horn and tailgated the vehicle" and then "furiously swerved across the double yellow line and sped through a red light to get past the cop car."

U.S. prosecutors say that two men, including a Queens building super, were indicted for allegedly trying to aid the Hezbollah: "Patrick Nayyar, an Indian citizen living in Queens, and Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland, a U.K. citizen, have been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; providing material support; conspiracy to make a contribution of funds, goods, or services to and for the benefit of Hezbollah; and making a contribution of funds, goods or services." Authorities also claim Nayyar was here illegally, but his lawyer said he is here legally, though his visa may have lapsed, adding he was skeptical of the charges.

A Brooklyn mother charged with beating her 4-year-old son to death over the course of two days told a friend she was "possessed by a spirit" during the savage attacks. Suspect Myrna Chen Phang was visited Sunday at the NYPD's 71st Precinct station house by a friend, Rosa Adrien, who tells the Daily News, "[Phang] said something came over her, almost like a spirit. She said she didn't know why she let it happen." 4-year-old Jayden Lenescar died Friday afternoon after being beaten repeatedly with fists, a clothes hanger and belt buckle.

Although Jamal Blair, the 18-year-old arrested for killing a 92-year-old Bronx woman, allegedly confessed to police, he told reporters last night, "I didn't do it. I was framed by the police. The police did it, they framed me, man. No justice."

A Manhattan teenager with no criminal record is suing the city for $1 million because cops arrested and taunted him as "Plaxico Burress" after he got shot in a robbery. Christian Dudley doesn't even own a gun, but that didn't matter to the officers who collared him after the Harlem mugging earlier this year. He was arrested in a Washington Heights hospital where he was waiting to get the bullet removed from the back of his knee—instead of surgery, he got dragged to the precinct on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. And that's where the fun really started.

Fresh meat will be denied to a nation eager to see justice meted out upon the Colorado parents behind the "Balloon Boy" saga—if the family's lawyer has his way. Richard and Mayumi Heene could face up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 if it's proven that they falsely reported that six-year-old son Falcon had been carried away in a homemade balloon on Thursday. Denver lawyer David Lane says his clients are willing to surrender, in part so they aren't arrested in front of their children.

When they're not shooting themselves in the groin, threatening to kill the president, or trying to blow up Starbucks, the city's rebellious youngsters continue to commit the less sensational crime of burglary. Cops arrested two teenagers suspected of ransacking dozens of lower Manhattan apartments in separate burglary sprees.

When news broke that alleged Pan Am hijacker Luis Armando Peña Soltren—the FBI's longest wanted fugitive—had turned himself over to authorities yesterday, it seemed probable that Soltren had worked out a plea deal in exchange for surrendering after more than four decades in exile. But today Soltren pleaded not guilty to participating in the 1968 hijacking of a Pan Am flight from New York and rerouting it to Havana, where he has lived ever since.