A 70-year-old suffered serious burns after his Jeep Cherokee exploded on Charles Street in New Rochelle. According to WABC 7, "Flames shot from the car as neighbors ran outside to help the victim. Eyewitness News is told he was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center with serious injuries, although he was expected to survive." And the Journal News says the man, who had just left a social club, had turned on the ignition when the car burst into flames. The New Rochelle police said, "We do not think it was a bomb," and the ATF is investigating also (the FBI has ruled out terrorism). more ›

An afternoon spree of shootings and carjackings by one man was ended yesterday by police, who fatally shot the suspect in a gun battle where 130+ shots were fired. A 23-year-old named Victor Gordon, with ten arrests already listed on his rap sheet, left his girlfriend's apartment on President St. after an argument. He walked over to St. Paul's Place just south of Prospect Park––perhaps stopping at a few bars along the way––and stole a Dodge Charger at gunpoint just before 2 p.m. He drove it back to the home of his ex-girlfriend, where he began firing shots into her front door. The Daily News reports that Gordon was visibly drunk at this time. As he stumbled down the steps from her building, he dropped his gun and then picked it up and brandished it at a group of children playing nearby. more ›

After scaring residents of two boroughs when a woman discovered a pipe bomb on her Jeep Cherokee, police arrested Baudelio Rodriguez for making a pipe bomb and placing it on a car. What makes the story more strange is that it was Rodriguez's daughter who discovered the bomb - the Jeep belongs to his daughter and his wife! He was reportedly angry at his wife for leaving their Brooklyn home and staying with their daughter in Staten Island. more ›

Yesterday, a five people were injured on Queens Boulevard at 47th Street when a Jeep Cherokee slammed into a Honda. The Jeep, which witnesses describe as trying to beat a red light, lost control and hit the Honda. The Honda, which had been making a turn onto Queens Boulevard, was crushed from the impact and then "plowed up onto the crowded sidewalk, pinning a 16-year-old boy against a lamppost." more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a North Fork Bank was robbed on Union St. in Queens, a Sovereign Bank on Ave. A in Manhattan was also robbed, and a stabbing on Chauncey St. in Brooklyn.
• A man and his cow return to New York City after 68 years (it's a different cow).
• Al Sharpton doubts that poor minorities would be let out of jail on request, and is upset that Paris Hilton is getting preferential treatment.
• A red Jeep Cherokee with Florida license plates rear-ended a silver sedan stopped at a red light on Queens Blvd. in Sunnyside, Queens, sending the latter car headlong into a group of pedestrians crossing the Blvd. at 46th St. Five people, four of them pedestrians, were injured and a 16-year-old boy will likely lose both of his legs. The Jeep driver fled the scene in his car.
• The cop shot four months ago, while sitting in an unmarked police van with two other officers, returned to work at the 78th Precinct this week. He has still not recuperated enough to return to full active duty, but it's reported that he's happy to be back at work.
• Criss Angel's Times Square encasing-himself-in-concrete stunt was dedicated to Cameron Diaz, who he described as beautiful, talented, and smart.
• Unable to find any children that hang out in bars, Charles Schumer vowed to block OTB terminals in drinking establishments to protect the college students, who he likened to children.
• Streetsblog reports that parking spaces in Williamsburg, Brooklyn are being eliminated to make way for bike parking.

Yesterday morning's car accident involving a man suspected of stabbing someone in Rhode Island is profoundly crazy. Joel Noonan was trying to drive away from MTA police on Lexington Avenue when his Jeep Cherokee crashed into Nissan Pathfinder near 63rd Street, hitting pedestrians, with the Pathfinder ultimately crashing into a travel office window. One woman, Eve Maria Boisbel, was hit so hard that she, as Newsday reports, was "wedged inside a black metal garbage can between the gray SUV and the storefront." In fact, the Daily News calls the trash can a "lifesaving helmet" since the Pathfinder had crashed the trash can into the store. more ›

An off-duty police officer riding his motorcycle was run over by an SUV driven by a drunk volunteer firefighter from NJ yesterday morning. Eric Concepcion, a Bronx native who worked the Yankee Stadium detail, had been riding on the West Side Highway with a friend when Robert Derian put a blue emergency light on his Jeep Cherokee, possibly trying to pull them over. Then Dorian crashed his car into Concepcion's bike; Derian ended up "pushing the bike 1000 feet," stopping at West 133rd Street and the West Side Highway, with Concepcion dragged for part of that distance. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that "words may have been exchanged" between Concepcion and Derian, a volunteer firefighter from Saddle River, NJ, and the police say that Derian "chased" Concepcion and his friend for five miles, raising the possibility that Derian had road rage. Derian's blood alcohol level was 0.12, well above the 0.08 legal limit. The Post said that Derian "made an attempt to pose as a good Samaritan and save the dying Concepcion" but witnesses set the police straight. Of course, Derian's lawyer claims that he was just trying to help - "He pulled over to render air and assistance." more ›

A police van speeding to the scene of a crime hit an SUV in Brooklyn, causing two children in the car to be ejected into a street in Brownsville. Six year old Diamond Nicholas is in a medically induced coma, and his ten year old brother Raven was injured seriously as well; five police officers were injured as well, though not as severely (broken knee, broken arm). Their mother, substitute teacher Pearl Nicholas, had been driving them home from school when the police van "smashed into the passenger side of Nicholas's green Jeep, sending it spinning into a lamppost and then into a chain-link fence," according to the Post; the Nicholas family says that everyone was buckled in the Jeep Cherokee. The van, on its way to help an officer in pursuit of a man with a gun, had its sirens and lights on, but the family is reportedly blaming the cops for going too fast. However, they are happy with the plainclothes officer who rushed one of the boys to Brookdale Hospital. more ›

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