The investigation into the double murders of Mark Schwartz and his wife Christina Petrowski-Schwartz is continuing, but some nonbinding wills were made public and were proclaimed "oddball...bizarre" by the Daily News and "weird...bitter" by the Post. Schwartz made it clear he didn't want to give anything to his estranged brother--"Robert, you have a choice, you can come to my grave site to say hello out of love or piss on me for not giving you......

After the discovery of Mark Schwartz and Christina-Maria Petrowski-Schwartz, shot dead in their Brooklyn home's bedroom, investigators appear to be eying people who were close to the couple. The couple's usually aggressive German Shepherd did not make a peep during the killings and was tied up in the backyard. The Post reports that "$180,000 [was] missing from an escrow account," and that the couple had a "falling out [with] a one-time business partner of the......

A Marine Park husband and wife, who worked as divorce attorneys, were found dead, shot multiple times at close range in their bedroom. Their housekeeper found Mark Schwartz, 50, and Maria-Christina Petrowski-Schwartz, 48, yesterday afternoon on East 33rd Street. The Post reports that the police are investigating it as a double homicide, but "detectives had not entirely ruled out the possibility that it was a murder-suicide" (the murder weapon was not found). The Daily News......

The police released surveillance video showing a 62-year-old woman being mugged in hopes someone will be able to identify the attacker. This past Monday morning around 6:40 a.m., Patricia McGowan was heading to Good Shepherd School in Marine Park, a Catholic school where she has worked for 43 years as a math and computer teacher, when a young man approached her. As the Daily News describes, the mugger "punches the startled computer teacher in......

A 16-year-old student at James Madison High School was arrested after a teacher discovered a note outlining a murderous plot. Apparently Badrakh Byambadorj was planning on both blowing up the school and killing three people-- according to the NY Times, "a teacher, a student and an employee at the McDonald’s across the street"--as well as others at an intersection. No weapons were found at the Marine Park school (there are no lockers there), though weapons......

Gothamist reader luzer took some arresting, very "Wild Kingdom"-like photographs of a hawk snacking on a squirrel in Central Park, near the American Museum of Natural History. luzer posted photographs on Flickr and writes that some of the humans who gathered to watch the spectacle "guessed it was Pale Male. I am not convinced (we saw another one later in the park)." While New York is very urban, there are still many places where......

MOVIE: Nessie's taking off from the Marine Park salt marsh in Brooklyn, but you can catch the creature on the big screen. The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep stars Emily Watson and Ben Chaplin and traces a boy's discovery of a mysterious egg that hatches into the sea creature of the Scottish legend. Way better than finding a sea monkey. Various times and theaters, details here MUSIC: If for some reason you just couldn't......

Police are investigating an attack on a Brooklyn-bound Q train as a possible hate crime. A group of people (WNBC says they were on their way home from Hanukkah celebrations) were called anti-Semitic phrases and then beaten up by another group of ten people at Canal Street. The Post has some more details: Apparently one of the attackers "made anti-Semitic remarks about Jews killing Jesus, saying, 'This is a Christian country.'" But the father of......

The Loch Ness monster, who has been tagging the city, has been in a marsh in Brooklyn for over a month. A note to New York's mythical creature coterie, you only have through December 31st to catch Nessie so close to home. The serpent has made the salt marsh off of Marine Park homebase ever since Ridgewood artist Cameron Gainer placed his creation there at the end of October. Using boats and divers at high......

Thirteen-year-old Bramdon Ragnot was found in a Brooklyn alley, shot in the head, yesterday afternoon. He was discovered around 5PM by a Marine Park neighbor who told the Daily News, "I didn't know he was shot. I thought he was just beat up. I said, 'I know it hurts, but keep your eyes open.'" Another neighbor told the Post that a teen had asked to use a phone after the shooting, "He banged on my......

ART: FreeNYC reminds us that the new gallery Honey Space is opening tonight with a little shindig. The night will include a solo show by Thomas Beale, "otherworldly food, homemade drinks, one New Orleans circus star, a 9-piece brass band, and the products of years of concentrated effort." 6 to 9pm // Honey Space [11th Ave at 21st St] // Free MOVIE: March of the Penguins kicks off the Outdoor Lawn Chair Summer Movie Series......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation on the Van Wyck, a jumper down in Coney Island, and an off-duty Corrections officer shot in Bed-Stuy. The Lakers may be in town, but Kobe can't play! Bryant is suspended for hitting Manu Ginobili on Sunday, but we think the Knicks will choke. For the first time in 12 years, the city is going to be giving out new Section-8 housing vouchers to non-emergency applicants. The......

Yesterday, a Brooklyn grandmother was fatally hit by a car while crossing Brighton Beach Avenue. Eighty year old Maya Shelgelman had the walk signal when a car driven by Rakhilya Ashurozak turned and hit Shelgelman. One witness told the Post that it looked like Ashurozak had been on the phone while driving: "She had one handon the wheel and one hand on her phone." Ashurozak was only given a summons for not yielding to a......

A Brooklyn neighborhood is reeling from the burning of seven different residents' flags Thursday morning. Six of the flags were in front of homes and one was on a car - and one home belonged to a firefighter who died on September 11, making his mother extremely upset. Though many homes have "support the troops" signs, police believe teenaged pranksters are reponsible, versus being a hate crime. City Councilman Lewis Fidler noted, "In Marine Park......

Pass the Deep Woods-Off! Rog the Armchair Athlete tipped us off to an awesome experience, if you're into sleeping bags, starry skies, and NYC parks: The Parks Department's Under the Stars campout on June 24. There will be "night hikes, s'more making, campfire games and wildlife searches" in one park in each borough. The participating parks are Orchard Beach in the Bronx, Marine Park in Brooklyn, Alley Pond Park in Queens, Wolf's Pond Park in......