Results tagged “harlemriverdrive”

Police officer Sean Sawyer was released and not charged after confessing to shooting an unarmed man in Harlem during a road argument early Sunday morning. The Manhattan DA's office claimed that Sawyer could have been acting in self-defense, because the other driver, Jayson Tirado, suggested he had a gun when he gestured and yelled at Sawyer. DA Robert Morgenthau said the "case is under investigation and is going to go to a grand jury. When there's a claim of self-defense, there is no immediate arrest."

The 25-year-old man shot and killed by police Friday evening had a troubled history with the law and an official review of the shooting by the NYPD concluded that its officers acted properly. Plainclothes police approached Ronald Battle Friday night around 11 p.m., while responding to a complaint that two armed men were outside the Rangel Houses development on Harlem River Drive. Battle ran when he saw the police and attempted to enter one of the housing project's buildings where he lives. Unable to enter, Battle jumped over a fence. Cops say that Battle pulled a gun and when he refused to drop it one of the officers fired four shots at him, hitting him once in the back and killing him. A loaded 9mm pistol was found next to his body.

Around 2AM Sunday morning, a Dodge Caravan crashed into a light pole on the Harlem River Drive, killing 14-year-old passenger George Perez. Police say the van, which held a total of 10 people, was overloaded and that the 35-year-old driver lost control of the vehicle. The Caravan only holds 7 people.

• Today on Gothamist Newsmap: A brush fire at 147th and Harlem River Drive, a truck stuck under the bridge at the West 231st and Broadway subway tracks in the Bronx, and a barricaded EDP on Staten Island
• College news: NYU protesters didn't storm the stage when the president of the Minutemen visited and Barnard's president is stepping down after 14 years (!)
• According to the Post, Peter Braunstein "has sat through the hearings in a wheelchair, typically slumped over, droopy-eyed and with his mouth hanging agape"

Yesterday's steady deluge of rain (and at times, pouring) left a variety of problems yesterday. While the amount of rain that fell in Central Park was well below the record for November 8 (9.7 inches in 1977), the NY Sun notes that the 2.93 inches did not go unnoticed. Vendors and stores lost business, airports all had flight delays and the FDR and Harlem River Drive were flooded. Not to mention the subways. One Pace University student said, "I'm definitely going to have to skip math class this evening if it keeps up. The trains are slow and it's a huge inconvenience." Ah, the classic "the MTA was screwed up - that's why I'm late!"

Police are looking for the driver of a cream-colored Lincoln livery cab in connection with the death of 15 year old Stephon Bacchiano on Halloween night. Bacchiano was hit by the car when crossing the Harlem River Drive, and the passenger stepped forward. She told police the driver said about Bacchiano, "He didn't belong on the highway anyway," and that the driver didn't stop. Bacchiano's mother said, "What goes around comes around. There's no way he will get away with this."

Halloween has its scary sights and fun spooks, but it's also a night where lots of people pour onto the streets and tend to act a little crazy.

On June 27, 1986, Keith Haring got a $25 dollar ticket for painting an unauthorized mural on a handball court on East 128th Street. A few months later, the Parks Department invited him back to finish it, and twenty years later, it's still there-- an iconic reminder of times past. Bonus fact: the piece is probably one of the most-seen in the entire city, as it sits a stone's throw from the Harlem River Drive.