One person was killed, and four others were injured after a two-alarm fire ripped through a house in Queens early this morning. It took 106 firefighter approximately two hours to stifle the blaze at 61st St. in Woodside. "There was heavy, heavy fire and we had to climb some fences two yards over to get to the back of the building," said firefighter Ronnie Daly of Rescue 4. Once he smashed his way inside, he found an unresponsive 63-year-old man: "He was about 12 feet into the rear bedroom, on the ground, unconscious. It looked like he was trying to get out." more ›

Influential '90s rapper Heavy D, born Dwight Arrington Myers in Jamaica (and raised in Mount Vernon, NY), has died at the age of 44 years old. According to TMZ, a 911 call was placed from his home in Beverly Hills at 11:25 a.m., he was rushed to the hospital in Los Angeles around noon, and pronounced dead around 1 p.m. Pacific time. The site reports that the 911 call was to "report an unconscious male on the walkway," but he was "conscious and speaking" when paramedics arrived. Cops are investigating the death, though there are no obvious signs of foul play. His last Tweet was from just 16 hours ago, and read: "Be Inspired!" more ›

A Bronx woman has admitted to stuffing her dead 73-year-old roommate, whose death she claims to have nothing to do with, in a suitcase because she was scared. Either Monica Exum isn't telling the truth, or she must have some pretty lousy friends: "My friend told me if someone dies in your apartment you go to jail, so I got really afraid. I didn't know what to do," Exum told cops. more ›

"This kid has been my life. And now, my boy is gone," Baldwin told Newsday. more ›

A Bronx woman is accused of abandoning her pit bull to starve to death after she was evicted from her apartment. Cherika Alvarez, 30, is on trial for leaving behind 18-month-old pup Alize after she was evicted from her apartment in mid-November 2009. The dog was found weeks later with two razorblades, ketchup packs, sharp pieces of wood and garbage in her stomach. Alize's body was so badly decomposed that officials "had to scrape her off the floor," Alvarez tearfully testified. more ›

Two men were killed, including one young dad, and ten other people were injured in a spate of shootings throughout the city last night and early this morning. Queens father Anthony McRae, 22, was fatally shot around 4:45 a.m. this morning in front of the Hamzah Deli and Grocery on Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville. "He loved to work but we always said go back to school. Then he had a son. He always wanted to do best by him...Isn’t that something? He had to lose his father on Father’s Day," his Aunt, Vivian Presley, told the Post. more ›

One elderly woman was killed and five others were injured when a cab crashed into a building in the Bronx this afternoon. A 61-year-old, who has yet to be identified, was shopping in the Cee and Cee Department Store when the careening cab crashed through a glass pane and hit her. The car was about halfway across the intersection when everyone started screaming, ‘Oh my God! Oh my god!' I turned and saw the car slam into the store,” said witness Juan Gonzalez Sanchez. more ›

As soon as the new year hit, pretty much exactly at the stroke of midnight, dead birds started falling from the sky. This is either some sick marketing scheme for Angry Birds, or the apocalypse is upon us. While we haven't started seeing dead pigeons raining down on us here in New York (yet), the mass animal deaths are continuing around the world. It seemed to begin with hundreds of thousands of dead birds and fish in Arkansas, which is alarming enough on its own, but then Louisiana saw hundreds of dead blackbirds falling from the sky, and now the Daily News is reporting on the doomsday scenario... though they neglect to mention the thousands of doves that fell from the sky in Italy! More on that later. more ›

As you have definitely heard by now, 100,000 dead fish went belly up last week on a 20 mile stretch along the Arkansas River, and then on New Year's Eve—just before the witching hour—thousands of red-winged blackbirds fell dead from the sky (also in Arkansas). But Arkansas is so far away and we live in New York City and we're all going to live forever and nothing can touch us. Well this thing is moving, people, and yesterday an estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Louisiana. Necropsies show that the birds suffered internal injuries that formed blood clots, which led to their deaths. As Louisiana local Denise Dickerson proclaimed: "This is really getting kind of crazy with the fish and the birds and these tornadoes hitting during the winter." more ›

Just in time for Halloween, the mysterious animal massacres in Prospect Park have returned, and they're more gruesome than ever! Earlier this week, local man Alex Gurevich found two bags in the park—one filled with animal guts and the other with a beheaded and gutted deer or goat carcass! The Brooklyn Paper reports that the bags were found at the edge of the park near Parkside Avenue and Parade Place, just 30 feet from each other. more ›

Comedian Greg Giraldo, one of the regular Comedy Central celebrity roasters and judge of Last Comic Standing, has died today at the age of 44. Giraldo had been hospitalized in New Brunswick, NJ after he accidentally overdosed on prescription pills last weekend. His overdose came hours after he performed at a rally to mark National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. more ›

Police discovered the body of a 4-year-old girl weighing only 15 pounds this morning in Brooklyn. Apparently Marchella Pierce's arms and legs were tied to her crib with twine and a jump rope; cops are questioning the mother, 30-year-old Carlola Pierce, who said she found Marchella's lifeless, severely malnourished body in the family's Bushwick residence at 4 a.m., but waited three-and-a-half hours to call police. According to the Post's sources, the living area of the house was filthy and Marchella had trauma to her arms, ankles and wrists, and appeared to be underdeveloped with undeveloped lungs. There was also an oxygen tank next to her bed, which she wasn't connected to. Girls at age 4 have a median weight of around 35 pounds; 15 pounds is the median weight of a 6-month-old girl. more ›

Sadly, with summer comes stories of animals dying in the sweltering cars of their incompetent owners. Fox5 reports that a Bronx man has been arrested after leaving his dog inside of his van. 41-year-old Heriberto Palacio now faces a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. more ›

In the latest crazy cat lawsuit, a Queens veterinarian is suing Animal Medical Center in Manhattan for euthanizing her cat against her will... and while she watched! According to the Daily News, 58-year-old Shelley Gale's cat Joey was undergoing surgery last summer on a chest tumor, and being a pet oncologist herself, she outlines in a 25-page complaint what exactly happened. more ›

Around the time the EPA was patting Prospect Park on the back and awarding the space for its cleanliness... more dead animals popped up by the lake. So far this year there have been dismembered animal parts, a dead duck, a dead swan, a dead dog, dead turtles and fish... who can keep track? The latest victims include a raccoon, a possum and several gosling. more ›

A reader sent us this photo of the baby humpback whale that was beached on Long Island recently. This was taken earlier this week, and its current state is pretty gruesome. The whale was euthanized after experts found it had no chance of survival. Our tipster notes: "It doesn't look quite like the necropsy the Riverhead foundation was supposed to carry out." But then again, who knows what a whale necropsy looks like? We've contacted the Riverhead Foundation to see what exactly is going on here, but we're sure they're treating the situation professionally, and not, say, feasting on whale burgers. Full image after the jump. more ›

Actor Corey Haim died this morning of an apparent overdose, TMZ reports. The LAPD confirms the 38-year-old was found unresponsive in his Oakwood, California apartment, where his mother was also staying—he was pronounced dead at Providence St. Joseph's Medical Center in Burbank. The LAPD believe the death was accidental. Haim battled drug addiction for much of his life, a subject that was touched upon in "The Two Coreys," the A&E reality show he co-starred in with longtime friend Corey Feldman in 2007 and 2008. The show allegedly ended because Feldman refused to work with Haim until he got help. (Some clips of Haim after the jump.) more ›

Less than 24 hours after a woman in Dyker Heights was killed by a hit-and-run driver, a 17-year-old boy in the Bronx has suffered the same fate. Police responded to a 911 call just after 1 a.m. this morning at White Plains Road and Seward Avenue; when they arrived they found the victim and a totaled 1996 green Honda Accord. The vehicle, which had been reported stolen, was abandoned by the driver, who fled on foot. No description of the driver has been released yet, and the unidentified boy, who had been walking along White Plains Road, was pronounced dead at the scene. more ›

A sad story comes over the Craigslistwire, where a poster says a 19 month old English Bulldog died on a Delta flight Wednesday night. They posted photos of the dog, postmortem, and say the NY ASPCA refuses to get involved, claiming it's a civil matter and they don't handle airport deaths. The dog was found dead, allegedly having froze to death, after the plane landed at JFK airport. more ›

Notoriously reclusive author J.D. Salinger has died at age 91 in New Hampshire, where he had been living since 1953. The author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative that he died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, where he had isolated himself from most of the world. more ›

An elderly Bronx woman with Alzheimer's who had been missing for over 36 hours was finally found Sunday morning—dead on the fire escape two stories below her apartment. Lucia Rodriguez, 79, disappeared Friday night, and her son Miguel spent Saturday searching local hospitals and shelters, hoping to find her alive. Investigators are trying to figure out how Rodriguez got onto the fire escape and what the cause of death was; her corpse was spotted by a neighbor at 8 a.m. Sunday. "I don't know what I'm going to do now without her," 73-year-old Marcelino Ayala, her longtime live-in companion, tells the Daily News. more ›

Since Plum Island gave us the Montauk Monster (unsubstantiated!), it's only fair that they get something in return. On that note, the Daily News reports that a tall, white male with extremely long fingers has washed up on the medical testing site's shore. A security guard discovered the partially decomposed body yesterday in a restricted access area, and an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death, but no trauma was noticed. Conspiracy theorists: maybe the long-fingered man didn't wash up on the shore, maybe he was trying to escape! more ›

This morning the body of 29-year-old drummer Troy Young (of the band Curious Mishap) was found dead, with a bullet wound in his head, inside of his Carroll Gardens apartment. NY1 reports that police are currently investigating the shooting death. They only discovered the body this morning, after receiving a missing persons report. more ›

Brooklyn's Joe Tiralosi doesn't remember much about that day in August when he went to New York Presbyterian Hospital feeling sick and disoriented, then collapsed. But last week the 56-year-old father of two visited the hospital to thank doctors for not giving up on him just because his heart stopped beating for 47 minutes after a sudden cardiac arrest. All told, it took 4,500 chest compressions and eight shocks from a defibrillator to bring him back from the brink. Doctors are calling it a medical miracle, but Tiralosi's also lucky the E.R. he visited happened to have some special equipment. more ›

The original anarchic comedy hero for teenagers and college students, Soupy Sales, died Thursday in a hospice in New York City after suffering from multiple health problems. He was 83. Soupy, one of the only known men to have splattered a pie in Fank Sinatra's face and take more than 20,000 cream-fille tins to his own, won over TV audiences young and old, but mostly young, in the 1950s and '60s. more ›

A 44-year-old mother of two died and three others were critically injured by a fire that tore through a Flushing apartment early Sunday morning. The deceased, Bianca Wisniewski, was due in federal court today for a hearing in her $20 million sexual-harassment lawsuit against Total Safety Consulting and JPMorgan Chase. Four of the 110 firefighters at the scene suffered minor injuries, and the fire was ultimately contained to the single apartment, because the cement and steel walls stopped it from spreading. more ›

Back in 2003 Mayor Bloomberg declared: "Our administration has zero tolerance for rats. And I've got one message today, `City to rats: Drop Dead.'" But there are still rats running rampant, even in this city's pizza trucks... even at Peter Luger. So maybe the focus should be on dead rats — they're just easier to capture — especially if someone were to create a dead rat map. more ›