The police released a sketch of a man suspected of raping a teenage girl in Queens and asked for the public's help in identifying him. more ›

Earlier this morning, an MTA bus collided with a school van transporting children in Fresh Meadows, Queens. Details of the accident are thin, but initial reports say that up to 9 people are injured, most of which are children. The collision occurred just after 8 a.m. when the Q46 bus struck the van. The FDNY says that two critically injured children were sent to Long Island Jewish Hospital with one other child. Three other children were sent to Mary Immaculate Hospital and two more people were taken to Queens General Hospital and to New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens. more ›

Around 9:50AM, a man was shot multiple times outside a day care center in South Jamaica. A baby-sitter had yelled, "Oh, my God, this is crazy! This is day care!" The victim, identified as 30-year-old Dwight Bent, was pronounced dead at Mary Immaculate Hospital. more ›

A Queens bus driver got into a brawl on his bus with a 22-year-old passenger after the younger man refused to surrender his seat at the front of the bus to an elderly woman with a cane. The New York Post reports that Larry Woods, who is 44, smashed passenger Christian Custis over the head with the bus's onboard phone after the man half his age wouldn't get out of a seat marked reserved for the handicapped when an elderly woman with a cane boarded the bus at 164th St. and Hillside Ave. in Jamaica, Queens yesterday Friday morning. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bicyclist was struck on 72nd St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan, shots were fired on Halsey St. in Brooklyn, and there was a suspicious death at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens.
• A dozing violinist awoke to jump onto an arriving subway train at the Clark St. station, but left his valuable "Scarampella" violin on the platform in Brooklyn. Have you seen it? UPDATE: the violin was turned into the MTA's lost and found. It's a July 4th miracle!
• The nocturnal cat-eating New Jersey chupacabra. Pet owners beware!
• The Gowanus Lounge notes the quick vandalism and destruction of a new bus shelter in Gerritsen Beach.
• The next time a developer decides to renovate a brownstone or an apartment building, we hope they can spare some time to do something like Houston's Tunnel House.
• A guide to Community Supported Agriculture in NYC, connecting farmers with New York residents.
• The city will cut the number of pedicabs allowed on New York's streets from 500 to 325 this fall.

The police have arrested the man who was driving the getaway van that injured a Queens security guard. Guard Awali Khouroupra (pictured) had chased shoplifters into the van and held onto the van's door. The shoplifters kicked him as the van dragged him for a block. more ›

Awali Khouroupra tried to stop a group of shoplifters at a store in Queens, but he is now in the hospital. A cashier saw a man and woman taking "armloads of clothing" from the racks of Pretty Girl and Khouroupra, a 52-year-old immigrant from Togo, ran after them. more ›

Long Island resident Christopher Savini was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after he fled from yesterday morning's hit and run on the Grand Central Parkway that killed a man and injured a woman. Christian Melendez had crashed, while possibly speeding, into a guardrail (his Honda was not initially hit, as previously reported). The Daily News reports that Melendez's car was "perpendicular to the road and blocking two westbound lanes," and he and passenger Andrea Machiqua got out of the car to inspect the damage. Sources say the 28 year old Melendez, who had a previous DWI and a suspended license, had been drinking earlier and that alcohol was found in the car. more ›

This morning, one man is dead and a woman is seriously injured after a series of hit-and-run incidents. Christian Melendez's Honda had stalled on the Grand Central Parkway near Utopia Parkway. A car rear-ended them and sped off, so Melendez and a passenger got out of the car to check out the damage. more ›

Last night, Trent Benefield left the hospital a week and a half after he and his friends were shot by police outside a Queens nightclub. His friend, Sean Bell, was killed while the third friend, Joseph Guzman, remains in the hospital with around 19 wounds. Benefield thanked the Reverend "Al Sharpton, the community, the community leaders for sticking by" him. And he told NY1 that there was "no fourth man," as police have claimed, in their car. more ›

Why was a 33 year old man running around the streets of Jamaica, Queens, firing a machine gun on Monday? To settle a beef with his sister's ex, of course. Patrick Ledger was unable to find his sister's ex, though, so he started firing the weapon around 179th Street and Hillside Avenue. After many 911 calls, the police found Ledger and shot him in the eye when he refused to put down the gun. The NYPD says that they haven't seen that kind of semi-automatic gun for a decade (Commissioner Ray Kelly said "street sweeper" type weapons were more common in the mid 1990s). WCBS 2 pointed out that these kinds of guns have been recently reclassified by the government as "simple handguns." more ›

A man firing a .45 caliber machine pistol was shot by police in Jamaica, Queens. After receiving 911 calls about a man firing a gun at 179th Street and Hillside Avenue, police had chased the 33 year old man four blocks. A nearby office worker Ron Karo told the NY Times, "I looked out the window, and I saw two cops shooting a black man...He was going up and down. I never saw him shooting at the cops." more ›