A family had been living in its Mill Basin, Brooklyn apartment for less than a week, when their 18-month-old toddler was struck by a bullet that passed through its ceiling from an upstairs apartment Thursday afternoon. Their upstairs neighbor is 24-year-old police officer, an Army veteran assigned to Manhattan's 1st Precinct, named Patrick Venetek. Venetek rushed downstairs to explain what had happened. Per WCBS News, he claims he had been cleaning his gun when it......

A week and a half ago, former NJ Governor James McGreevey and his ex-wife Dina Matos McGreevey were fighting over a birthday party McGreevey and his partner were planning for 6-year-old daughter Jacqueline, another public spat in their contentious divorce. In spite of a judge's repeated requests for the McGreeveys to settle their differences for the sake of their daughter, we know a lot about their squabbling. The Post runs down the greatest hits. Matos......

In May of 2006, a bouncer at Opus West 22nd Street was arrested after shooting four clubgoers, killing one of them. Then it turned out that Stephen Sakai was possibly connected to three other murders of associates from when he worked at a strip club in Brooklyn. Yesterday, Sakai took the stand in his trial for the three Brooklyn murders. And, boy, to be on that jury. The Post reports that he used a fake......

Could this be an instance where Con Ed isn't to blame? The utility says that a garbage truck may have compromised the sidewalk grate a young woman fell through earlier this year! In May, a woman fell 10-12 feet through sidewalk grating outside 150 West 51st street. Luckily, Jessica Hinksmon only suffered minor injuries, narrowly avoiding being electrocuted by an electrical transformer. Con Ed says that a video shows a private sanitation truck driving......

In May of 2000, five employees of a Wendy's in Flushing were killed in the basement, while two others were injured. John Taylor and Craig Godineaux were arrested and charged with the murders. While Godineaux pleaded guilty to the crimes and is serving a life sentence without parole, Taylor, a former Wendy's employee, was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2002. In the years since Taylor's sentence, the NY State Court of Appeals ruled,......

The other day, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new way the city will be able to monitor streets and make sure they are in good repair: The Street Conditions Observation Unit (SCOUT). SCOUT inspectors will "drive every City street once per month and report conditions that negatively impact quality of life to 311." The inspectors will use their Blackberrys to report things like graffiti, clogged sewers, potholes, damaged bus shelters, and more. Mayor Bloomberg explained,......

A brutal crime took the lives of three young people and injured one more in a Newark schoolyard on Saturday night, saddening and angering the community. Twenty-year-old Iofemi Hightower, 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, and 18-year-old Terrance Aerial were "lined them up against a wall and forced...to kneel" before being shot in the head, according to Newark police. Aerial's sister Natasha was also with them, but she was shot first in another area. She survived a......

The City Council voted, 46-2, to allow NYC public school students to bring cell phones to and from school - though not to use them during the day. The bill was meant to address concerns of parents and students who believe cell phones are critical to students' safety (see these tales of cell phone-less horror). City Councilman Lew Fidler who sponsored the bill said his 17-year-old son walks eight blocks for a bus and "We......

A ship built of reeds and using stone age technology is being equipped at Liberty Harbor, NJ in preparation for a transatlantic journey to Spain that will begin in a few days. In the tradition of Thor Heyerdahl, who completed a similar task by sailing a balsa wood raft from South America to Polynesia in 1947, a German botanist named Dominic Gorlitz is attempting to prove that trans-oceanic travel was possible 14,000 years ago. From......

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......

In May word was spreading that the famed Gotham Book Mart would be shutting its doors as the owner, Andreas Brown, was forced to pay overdue rent. At that time, the entire contents of the shop ("from rare first-edition John Updike novels to the worn-out oriental rug on the third floor") were sold for $400K at a court-mandated auction. The Post called it an "undignified last chapter for the institution - beloved by the likes......

A lesson in quotas and school bureaucracy for an 11-year-old: The Post reoprts that Nikita Rau was denied a place at a magnet school because she's not white. Rau and her parents hoped she would attend Mark Twain School - IS 239, a magnet school in Coney Island (recently reported to have the best Math and English scores for Level 4 students) but a 33-year-old federal ruling is preventing her entry. The quotas for the......

The Queens DA's office has charged a man in the murder of 20-year-old Natasha Ramen. And it turns out that Hemant Megnath had raped Ramen in 2005; police believe the Megnath slashed Ramen's throat last Thursday to keep her from testifying about the rape. In May 2005, Ramen had been apartment-hunting and was introduced to a fellow Guyanese immigrant, Megnath, who had been working for a broker. Megnath took her to his Brooklyn apartment and......

Mayor Bloomberg announced the city's second federal lawsuit against out-of-state gun dealers who have sold many illegal guns involved in NYC crimes This is how the gun dealers violated law:The investigators, in teams of two, entered gun stores and followed a scenario commonly known as “straw purchasing” – where one individual makes all of the inquiries into purchasing the gun, and then the other individual, completely uninvolved in the sale process, fills out the required......

In May 2005, a Cessna single-engine sightseeing plane crashed on a Coney Island beach, killing the pilot and the three tourists from West Virginia aboard. Now, the victims' families are suing plane's company for $45 million, claiming that the plane was never intended as a sightseeing vehicle. The Post reports that a NJ flight school had "advertised the flight as instructional time for potential student pilots," even though the West Virginia father, teenage daughter, and......

Remember DJ Star? In May, he had threatened his morning radio DJ rival DJ Envy's wife and 4 year old daughter with racial slurs and sexual molestation - even offering a reward for where the child went to school. Well, after being fired from Power 105, getting arrested for the threats, and claiming that the hurtful words of other DJs led him to make those comments, a judge dismissed charges against him if he performs......

In May 2003, the NYPD were trying to raid a CD priacy ring at the Chelsea Mini-Storage. A cop, Brian Conroy, walking the dark labyrinth of the facility ended up fatally shooting Ousmane Zongo, an immigrant from Burkina Faso who had been working on African art in another storage unit. Yesterday, Zongo's family accepted a $3 million settlement from the city as an "apology" to end their wrongful death lawsuit. The city Law Department said,......

Name: Oraia Reid Occupation: Co-Founder & Executive Director of Right Rides, which provides free, late-night ride home service to women and members of the LBTQGNC community. Tell us how you and Consuelo Ruybal decided to start Right Rides. Why the focus on the female and LBTQGNC community? Consuelo and I started RightRides in August 2004 in direct response to an increase on sexual assaults on women walking home by themselves late at night in Williamsburg......

EVENT: The only thing better than a tag sale is a swap sale. It's pretty much like going through a friends closet and taking what you fancy. Tonight, free up some of your own closet space and bring down all the clothes you want to get rid of to Thrift On! Others will do the same, and you'll likely go home with some goodies to fill up all that newly found closet space of yours.......

During the morning rush hour, a series of explosions have blasted in downtown London, killing at least two people and casualties (which include both the wounded and dead) were hovering near a hundred. The front of a double decker bus was sheared off in one explosion, while a number of explosions (anywhere from three to seven) hit between six Underground stations (Edgware Road, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Russell Square, Aldgate East, Moorgate). People may still......

Yesterday afternoon, the jury deliberating the manslaughter case of Officer Bryan Conroy's fatal shooting of African immigrant Ousmane Zongo announced they were deadlocked again, declaring a mistrial. In May 2003, Zongo had been restoring art in one of the storage rooms at the Chelsea mini-storage; Conroy was working a sting operation there as well. They confronted each other in the dark, twisting warrens of the storage facility and what exactly happened has been at the......

Jury selection for the Ousmane Zongo manslaughter case against police officer Bryan Conroy started yesterday. In May 2003, Conroy was undercover in the Chelsea Mini Storage for a counterfeit CD sting. Zongo, an African immigrant, had been working in the storage facility, restoring African art stored there. When Conroy and Zongo approached each other in the dim, twisting hallways of the mini storage, it's unclear exactly what happened except that Conroy shot and killed the......

The skip-stop along the 1/9 will end in May, meaning that the No. 9 train is headed for that trainyard in the sky...or Queens, as it were (well, it's not really a trainyard...the MTA will get rid of the signs and make new maps). In May, all the stops in upper Manhattan and the Bronx will get No. 1 trains all the time, making some people happy and others, who liked the "local yet express"......

Tomorrow, the 2004 NYC Grand Prix of Fencing in fencing starts, featuring over 300 fencers. The competition includes individual events and the 2004 World Championships in Women's Team Foil and Saber. The top 30 men in saber will all be competing as will the top 5 women in foil and saber. In May, Newsday looked at local fencers and their Olympic aspirations. Keeth Smart from Brooklyn, is one of 13 Americans that are qualified......