Imecca Burton, her mother, and civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel held a press conference in front of Police Headquarters yesterday to decry the handcuffing of 10-year-old Imecca, who was handcuffed by police in front of PS 25 where she attends elementary school. Police officers witnessed a fight on her school bus and in the ensuing events Imecca was handcuffed. Witnesses said that Imecca was swearing, kicking, and screaming, which is why the cops cuffed her.......

For some people, celebrating New Year's didn't mean drinking champagne and wearing whimsical hats: It meant trying to deliver a baby! New York City's first 2008 newborns are from Queens: Kamiyah Alina Barrow was born at midnight at New York Hospital Medical Center in Queens while Isabella Sophia Sears was born about a minute later at Elmhurst Hospital Center. Baby Kamiyah, 8 pounds and 4 ounces, was born less than an hour after her parents......

Given how cold it is, this story is amazing: A teen who had been skateboarding with friends in Elmhurst last night heard some crying and found a a newborn baby girl wrapped in a blanket, inside a brown paper bag, at the top of a dumpster. The temperature was below freezing. Christopher Moncada said his brother Brian found the baby and when they opened the bag, "The baby was facing down. It looked like it......

A 2-year-old boy who had crawled out of his Queens apartment through an open window and onto a fire escape fell six stories to his death yesterday morning. His mother had been taking a shower. Neighbors tried to comfort Ezquel Contreras, who was bleeding extensively and was later pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital. The neighbors also said that the child's mother, Sandra Perez, didn't seem to realize her son was gone, since she didn't come......

There were a number of deaths and injuries from incidents all over the city early Sunday morning. The first was a collision between a Toyota and BMW on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island. The Toyota's driver, 29-year-old Paul Vinin, died while the BMW's driver Jolyn SIlva, was critically injured. Silva's passenger, 17-year-old Paulina Vivirito, had minor injuries. The Staten Island Advance, which said that Toyota "t-boned the BMW", reports that both Vinin and Silva had......

Last night in the Ridgewood section of Queens, a man turned the tables against a pair of men that were allegedly robbing him outside his home at 60-34 Putnam Avenue. Police officials told WABC that the 42 year-old shooter was approached by the two men shortly before 10:30 last night. When they attempted to rob him, he shot them multiple times. One of the alleged robbers, 31, was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An escaped prisoner from Elmhurst Hospital, an unusual crime on 42nd Street between 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan, and a water rescue at Coney Island Is John Liu a born-again preservationist? Tiffany & Company and company opened its first store on Lower Broadway in 1837 before moving uptown to its present location. 170 years later, the company is reversing direction and will open a Tiffany & Co. store......

Asha Bousri, a 40-year-old Queens woman, was hit by a driver in a Lincoln Navigator yesterday afternoon while crossing a street near her home. The driver did not leave the scene of the accident, but that may have been because the woman remained trapped underneath the wheels of his SUV for the next 10-15 minutes, before emergency workers could lift the Navigator with jacks and pull the woman free. Witnesses described Bousri crossing in the......

A rookie police officer on duty in Corona, Queens was attacked by a baseball bat-wielding man at 1:20 this morning. The man beat the cop - and then stole the cop's gun. Another cop nearby saw the attack and chased the perpetrator, managing to arrest him and get the gun. The second cop didn't realize it was a fellow cop had been injured. The police do not believe the gun was fired. The beaten cop......

Early Sunday morning, an off-duty police officer tried to intervene in an altercation in Jackson Heights, Queens. Apparently, the off-duty lieutenant, Jose Jacome, a 16 year NYPD veteran who had picked up his girlfriend from her shift working at a bar, saw a man being beaten by two other men. The NYPD says Jacome identified himself as a cop in both English and Spanish and then approached the scene. One of the attackers, 17 year......

The family of Matthew Velez, a 17 year old who was fatally beaten while in a juvenile jail at Rikers in 2000, has accepted a $650,000 settlement with the city. Velez was being held there for a minor drug charge, but was attacked by members of the Bloods. Back in 2004, Newsday found that Rikers guards made "major errors...[that] contributed to Velez's beating and his subsequent death.": As the teen was being beaten and......

The intersection of 94th Street and Ditmars Boulevard in Queens became the scene of a violent confrontation last night. An off-duty corrections officer shot another man during a struggle that stemmed from road rage. Officer Emilio Maldonado, who works at a correctional facility in Bedford Hills, honked his car's horn when the SUV in front of him didn't move during the green light. The SUV's driver and passenger, brothers Chris and Leroy Kenner, got out......

A man who allegedly pointed a loaded pistol at police was shot in the legs last night in Queens. A sergeant and two officers began following a man after he was seen acting suspiciously near the Queens Center Mall, according to the Times. The plainclothes cops gave chase in an unmarked car when the the suspect began to run. The chase continued on foot until the suspect ran into a parking garage on Junction Blvd......

As the biggest city in the country, different New York City hospitals are claiming babies born in their respective maternity wards are the the 300 millionth American. The NY Post had a graphic of three babies - all coming in at 7:46AM yesterday. There's baby Emanuel Plata born in Elmhurst Hospital. Then there's baby Zoe Emile Hudson at New York Presbyterian Cornell. And teeny Joana Palaguachi, born in Flushing Hospital. Newsday also offers a......

This might be a warning against going to the apartment of someone you just met at a bar: Over the weekend, Victor Mendez was stabbed to death from a potato peeler by Adolfo Carreon. The two met at a Queens bar Saturday night, chatting until 4AM and then went to Carreon's apartment, according to the Post. Then, around noon, the two men got into an argument and Carreon pulled the peeler on Mendez. Carreon's girlfriend......

The Mayor visited the two babies (and their families) whose hospitals claimed them to be the first NYC babies of 2005 in Queens and the Bronx on New Year's. Baby boy Noah Santos, born at Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center in the Bronx, and baby girl Daamaiah Hunter, born at Queens' Elmhurst Hospital, both got new "Made in NY" caps from the Mayor, which got Gothamist thinking. "Made in NY" is part of......