Yesterday was a crazy day at P.S. 108 in Cypress Hills: An man suspected of robbery ran into the school, while waving a loaded gun. About one thousand students (the school is kindergarten through fifth grade) were ultimately evacuated, many in tears. The Post reports suspect, Edwin Austin, had been running from Fulton Street resident Richard Perez, who saw him "lurking in a second-floor hallway" of his house. Perez, his two relatives, and two plainclothes......

According to new NYPD statistics, graffiti complaints in Brooklyn rose 96% last year, with arrests in the borough increasing by 33%. Citywide, complaints almost doubled from 4,886 in 2006 to 8,866 in 2007, and total arrests rose from 2,962 to 3,786. Williamsburg leads the tagging trend with a total of 186 complaints. “It's so expensive here, yet it looks like a dump,” long-time Williamsburg resident Mel Costello, 63, declared to the Daily News. “It's......

Photographs of a 7-year-old girl's battered body moved jurors in the Nixzmary Brown murder trial to tears yesterday. The prosecution showed crime scene photographs, featuring Nixzmary's dead body. The girl's stepfather Cesar Rodriguez is on trial for second-degree murder. Newsday thought it sounded like someone exclaimed "Jesus!" after seeing the pictures; other jurors covered their mouths. And with good reason: One of the pictures "showed bruised and scratched buttocks of the child with a spot......

Untitled photo of dancers, by Raymond Haddad at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an escaped patient on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, a homicide on Bruner and Burke Aves. in the Bronx, and shots fired on Bainbridge St. and Lewis Ave. in Brooklyn. Jurors in the Nixzmary Brown murder trial were sent home for the second consecutive day Thursday as the defense, prosecution, and judge met in secret to discuss potentially bombshell......

The FDNY was fighting a fire in a Cypress Hills apartment building when they found a dead woman. The authorities believe the 37-year-old was shot by her boyfriend and then set on fire, but the ME's office will determine the cause of death. The woman's body was found on the 6th floor. WABC 7 reports that a man was seen running out of the building at 10:30PM, "looking like 'a human torch.'" Apparently that man......

As mentioned in Extra, Extra yesterday, 54-year-old Eunice Washington was killed when a livery cab driver ran over her - and it may have been on purpose. WCBS 2 had initially reported that the driver may have argued with Washington's 29-year-old daughter Santana over the fare, but now it turns out that the argument was more about the driver's rudeness. Washington, her daughter, and her son got into a burgundy livery cab in the Cypress......

The five men who identified themselves as police before bursting into a Cypress Hills, Brooklyn home demanding to know "Where are the drugs?" were actually just thieves. WABC's Eyewitness News is reporting that the five men were dressed in police-type clothing, with one actually wearing a bulletproof vest and wielding a gun. They tied up two female residents and pistol whipped a man as they ransacked the home. An infant lying in a crib was......

The death of Nixzmary Brown, the fourth death at the hands of abusive parents in recent months and whose abuse case was supposedly being investigated by the Administration for Children's Services, has led to an agency "shake-up": Three employees were suspended and three others were reassigned, with punishment to be determined. Of the employees who were suspended, one was the supervisor who let an investigation about possible abuse close, even though the 7 year old......

A four month old red-tailed hawk was found with a shattered wing at the Cypress Hills National Cemetery. The hawk was shot by a BB gun and what kills us was that she was "lying next to a tombstone" (sure, she would have to be near a tombstone at a cemetery, but it's just sad) and she was named "Ruby" because the tombstone was for "Rubin." Animal Care and Control doubts she'll be able to......

Margaret Harper, NYC Public School Teacher...