Results tagged “machete”

A Brooklyn thug convicted of a violent crime spree last year almost caught a lucky break at Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday. Victor Hernandez, 17, was sitting in court (wearing his best Spider Man T-shirt) when a lawyer he'd never met, Joseph Santo, called him forward. Santo had mistaken Hernandez, a stocky Latino with curly hair, for his client Antoine Dick, a "clean-cut" black man who was due to get five years probation for purse-snatching. Instead, Hernandez was sentenced as Dick. He tells the Post, "I thought it was strange when I was given five years probation, but I didn't understand. All I knew was that I was happy." Santo—using the best 'that's what she said' defense ever—explains, "I've only met Mr. Dick half a dozen times. I thought he'd grown his hair out. I see as many as 40 clients in a week. I don't remember their faces all the time." Hernadez was ultimately apprehended in the probation office waiting room after his real lawyer arrived to clear up the mistake, helpfully sending his client to jail. He's expected to get at least seven years in prison for slashing two brothers with a machete in a Williamsburg restaurant, among other crimes.

If only the Williamsburg area had the occasional hipster grifter to worry about, and not the much uglier problem of machete attacks. For about a year now we've been reporting on the machete and alleged gang attacks in the South Williamsburg neighborhood, and now the Village Voice takes a closer look at the weapon of choice there.

This morning we received an email regarding another machete incident in South Williamsburg. The tipster wrote: "I witnessed a young man in handcuffs being pulled out the bodega near the corner of South 4th and Bedford at about 9:45 last night, the bodega next to Papa Lima sandwich shop. After he was placed into a police van, a police officer walked out of the bodega holding a machete.

Councilwoman Diana Reyna of Brooklyn is considering a bill to ban the sale of machetes, The NY Times reports. For those familiar with the recent gang activity in Brooklyn, the Williamsburg area especially, Reyna's desire to ban the weapon should come as no surprise. This year there have been a number of machete attacks, allegedly all gang-related.

The NYPD announced a 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds were arrested in the shooting of two people, including a 5-year-old girl who had been walking with her parents, on Monday night. The incident took place on a residential street in the Ridgewood section of Queens. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "The so-called Blood members were coming down the street and the Trinitario group was sitting on the stoop. And this was some sort of gang encounter. Shots were fired. And, as I say, we hope to make more arrests on this matter." Newsday reports when the girl's father saw one man draw a machete, the family tried to run for cover, and the little girl was hit in the back. A 28-year-old man, believed to be involved in the dispute, was shot in the leg. Neighbors tell NY1 there's been a lot of gang violence in the neighborhood.

Two bodega owners in Bay Ridge fought off a robbery earlier this week by taking justice into their own hands...with machetes. The Post reports that when three thieves tried to rob the S & J Meat Market Monday of $2,000 in cigarettes, brothers and co-owners Mohammed and Sammy Othman confronted them with foot-and-a-half-long machetes. "My knife's bigger than yours!" Sammy yelled at one of the robbers who had pulled a four-inch blade. After containing two of the thieves with the machete, Mohammed was able to lead police to the third by answering the suspect's cell phone, which was left behind at the bodega. He answered pretending to be one of the perp's cohorts and asked where he was. The suspect told him and was quickly apprehended by police.

Earlier in the week, unconfirmed reports of a knife-wielding assailant had Williamsburg residents on edge; South Williamsburg in particular has been flooded with patrolmen all week, and we’ve heard from readers who say they’ve been written summons for minor offenses like jaywalking.

The man who was taken into custody Tuesday after attacking a man with a machete and then throwing Molotov cocktails at the authorities from a Queens rooftop told police he was "having a bad day." Detective Robert Zajac explained that in trying to coax Felipe Velasquez down, "We were trying to tell him today is a different day, and we'll work it out with you.''

A man who slashed a person with a machete and then retreated to a Queens rooftop to throw firebombs at police is, thankfully, now in custody. The NYPD and FDNY had surrounded the Richmond Hill house on Hillside Avenue between 125th and 126th Streets; one of the police cars caught fire, but no one was injured.

A Queens bodega owner defended his store against a gun-wielding robber by way of a machete. Johan Marte, who owns the Erick Deli Grocery in Woodhaven, explained to the Post, "He had a gun and I took him out." The would-be robber, 28-year-old Omar Rodriguez, had fired twice before asking for money, but Marte managed to chop off the gunman's ear and finger. The Daily News has a photo of the robber that shows crime...