Results tagged “mugging”

Imagine if the most important sentence you ever wrote was a Facebook status update that goes something like this: "ON THE PHONE WITH THIS FAT CHICK......WHERER MY IHOP." Now you know how it feels to be 19-year-old Rodney Bradford, who used that all-caps message to keep himself out of prison.

A brazen gunpoint mugging in Central Park has the papers pondering whether or not it's safe to pass through the green-space at night. The discussion comes after three muggers held up two men who were walking near the intersection of East Drive and East 102nd Street on Sunday at around 12:30 am. According to the Daily News, one of the perps pulled out a gun while his accomplices snatched a wallet and an ATM card from the victims, aged 25 and 22. When a 46-year-old passerby happened upon the scene of the crime, the robbers held him up and stole his wallet. After the perps fled, the victims hailed down a passerby and called 911. Police canvassed the area and arrested 20-year-old suspect Ramelle Moore, whose arrest record includes busts for drug possession and trespassing. The other suspects remain at large.

A Manhattan teenager with no criminal record is suing the city for $1 million because cops arrested and taunted him as "Plaxico Burress" after he got shot in a robbery. Christian Dudley doesn't even own a gun, but that didn't matter to the officers who collared him after the Harlem mugging earlier this year. He was arrested in a Washington Heights hospital where he was waiting to get the bullet removed from the back of his knee—instead of surgery, he got dragged to the precinct on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. And that's where the fun really started.

The criminals hold the tasers now! Watch out would-be targets, if last year the machete was the weapon of choice, one mugger in Brooklyn may be unintentionally spearheading a taser trend. The Brooklyn Paper notes that on October 2nd "a stun-gun-toting purse snatcher shocked a victim on Bayard Street [at Graham Avenue] before running off. The woman was walking home from a bar at around 3 a.m." The robber ran off with her purse, cash and cell phone after she collapsed to the ground. Serious buzz kill.

A 47-year-old Elmhurst resident was convicted of beating up and robbing three women in 2006 and 2007—most notably a 101-year-old woman using a walker and an 85-year-old woman. Jack Rhodes, found guilty of "multiple charges of first-degree burglary, first- and second-degree robbery and second-degree assault," faces between 39 to 90 years in prison.

Hopefully this isn't a new trend amongst muggers. The NY Post reports that after a 25-year-old man mugged a Newkirk Avenue (off Bedford Avenue) resident inside his apartment building, he decided to set up camp and live there for more than a day, even fooling the locksmith into thinking it was his apartment after the real resident called to have the locks changed! Cops eventually intervened, but, shouldn't that have taken a lot less time?

An East New York mugging case that was a step away from a verdict had to be tossed when someone inside the Brooklyn courthouse recognized the jury's foreman and the defendant as old friends. The 20-year-old foreman, Rashawn Davis, apparently known as "Black," never revealed that he used to hang out with Corey Hinds, who goes as "Big Man." The Post says Davis goes by "Raymond Williams" and now may face perjury charges.

Police have identified a subway mugger who has pulled off a total of 13 robberies, including ones in each of the four boroughs the trains run in. Police are hunting for Rasheen Wallace (pictured), a career criminal who has 18 prior arrests for petit larceny, trespass, possession of marijuana and served 8 years for robbery. Police describe him as "a smooth operator" who isolates his victims, sometimes targeting them in the last car and near the end of the line. Ten of the thirteen robberies in the spree that began early this year have targeted women, including one in Inwood where Wallace punched a woman the face when she refused to give up her purse. Another 27-year-old woman robbed in Washington Heights tells the News, "It was just me and another guy in the car. The next thing I know, there was a knife in my stomach...I don't feel safe. I'm thinking of taking a karate class." The Post has a map of the robbery locations and describes Wallace as wearing a Boston Red Sox cap.

Detectives from the 88th Precinct have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with last week’s assault on Eddy Sanchez, a 22-year-old Pratt architecture student who is still in critical condition in a medically induced coma at Kings County Hospital Center. The suspect, Eugene Adams, is charged with assault, robbery and criminal possession of stolen property. A police source tells The Local Adams resides at 1100 Bedford Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, three long blocks east from the site of the August 4th attack at Grand and Lexington Avenues in Clinton Hill. After releasing surveillance footage of teens attempting to use Sanchez's ATM card at a bodega, police tracked down Adams through a tip called in to the Crime-Stoppers hot line, (800) 577-TIPS. According to ABC News, as many as four other teens may have been involved in the attack, but no other arrests were immediately made. It's being reported that the suspects beat Sanchez after he refused to give them money, and one of the assailants used a crowbar.

Friday morning a Port Authority cop faced off against a group of nine gang members aboard the PATH and took them all down without having to step off the train. Officer John Roche was fetched down while aboard a PATH train in Jersey City by 37-year-old Shine-Amon Sky around 6 a.m. Friday. Sky had woken up after dozing off during his morning commute to find one of the young Bloods nearby had stolen his cigarettes. The large group of teens and young adults then pounced on Sky when he confronted them about it. When Officer Roche tracked down the gang and saw how poorly his odds looked against so many of them, he ordered the train conductor to lock down the train just past the Grove Street stop as he waited for backup. Once his fellow officers arrived, they were able to round up all nine of the Newark gangbangers, who were charged with everything from riot and disorderly conduct to recruitment of a street gang. Two of the female teenagers were also hit with making terrorist threat when they said that they would kill Roche as he apprehended them.

A McDonald's in The Bronx had a real McDowell's-like situation on its hand when an employee intervened with a gun-toting mugging going on. But in this Soundview altercation, the action took place outside of the fast food joint when the guard of the Golden Arches spotted a couple attacking a man filling up his tank at a nearby gas station. And luckily for the McDonald's security guard who spotted the altercation and decided to get involved, he didn't have to rely on Prince Akeem's martial arts skills with a mop stick—he opened fire with his own weapon. The guard had a little background with using a firearm to chase down perps—he's a former cop. He was able to shoot one of the muggers in the leg, but the man's girlfriend was able to round up her partner in crime and drive off before the two could be apprehended. An 18-year-old fellow employee of the guard's at the restaurant said, "He shot first and he pistol-whipped [the driver]. His head was bleeding a lot. [Then] the security guard went out shooting. It's crazy. You don't expect this. I mean, I only work at McDonald's."

Maurice Parks, the subway conductor who sought revenge after being mugged but ended up killing an innocent bystander, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Parks had been stabbed by a group of men in Harlem in January 2008; he came across a man he thought was one of his attackers, chased him 200 feet and stabbed him multiple times. Though his lawyer tried to argue he was under duress, Parks was found guilty last month.

The NYPD has recently beefed up its presence in Greenwich Village, but it wasn't enough to stop an elderly WWII veteran from becoming the latest victim of the area's mini crime wave. The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m. on Friday, when an unknown assailant followed 91-year-old Eugene Schaffer from a bank to his West 12th Street apartment. Schaffer, who needs a pacemaker and a cane, had just withdrawn $400. The mugger slipped into the building behind him as he entered, walked past the front desk security, and joined Schaffer in the elevator, where he accosted the senior citizen once the doors closed.

Maurice Parks, who killed a man he thought mugged him—but was actually just a bystander—was found guilty of second-degree murder. Over a year ago, Parks, a martial arts expert, had been mugged and stabbed by a group of men on his way home; shortly after the attack, he ran into a man he thought was one of the muggers—so he stabbed him as he was on the phone with 911. Bystander Flonarza Byas died; the NY Times reports Byas "had 15 wounds, including 7 in the back." Parks's lawyer told the Daily News, "You take one piece away, none of this would have happened. It's a tragedy all around... His whole stabbing of Mr. Byas is a reaction to what happened to him." Parks will be sentenced next month and faces a minimum of 15 years in prison. The Times also brings up how Parks applied (and was rejected) to the NYPD three times and that in 1994 he was previously charged with attempted murder, for shooting and wounding a man who tried to rob him (a grand jury decided not to indict him).

Yikes! The Brooklyn Paper's police blotter details a kidnapping/mugging in Williamsburg. They report that on May 22 two perps armed with a semi-automatic pistol snatched up a Brooklyn man on Kent and North 9th around 10:30 p.m. While he was in the car (a white four-door sedan with tinted windows), they covered his eyes and emptied his pockets, taking his wallet and cellphone. They then drove to a bank on Broadway and forced the PIN number out of their victim, withdrawing around $200 from his account. Once they were done with him, about a half hour after first picking him up, they dropped him at South 11th Street between Berry and Wythe, leaving him 5 bucks for a cab. The victim managed to flag down a cop on Bedford to report the crime, which the paper says mirrors a similar incident from earlier in the month. In general, it's probably not a good idea to walk alone down the deserted Kent Avenue at night.

In January 2008, subway conductor Maurice Parks was walking home in Harlem when he was mugged by a group of attackers who also stabbed him. Parks, a martial arts expert, chased them off but thought he ran into one of them—and fatally stabbed the man, who turned out to be a bystander. Parks is now on trial for Flonarza Byas's death: Prosecutors say Parks "took it upon himself to exact the most ancient form of justice - an eye for an eye," stabbing Byas 15 times. However, Parks' lawyer said his client was "acting under fear and great distress" and "reasonably believed” Byas was one of the attackers, adding, "Mr. Parks was a very innocent victim who made a mistake about another innocent victim." The NY Times has audio of Parks' 911 call, where he tells the operator that he's been attacked and then apparently sees Byas and stabs him—Byas's screams can be heard.

Back in 2006, 56-year-old Margaret Johnson, who uses a motorized scooter because of a dislocated hip and herniated disk, was choked on Lenox Avenue in Harlem by Devon Johnson (no relation), a man arrested 9 times for robbery. But because she was on her way to the shooting range for a little target practice, she had her .357 magnum all lit to pop, and shot Johnson in the arm. Cops followed a trail of blood to his apartment and arrested him, but he beat the charge by claiming that Johnson shot him because he kicked her Shih Tzu after it attacked him. (For reference, here is a photo of the vicious Shih Tzu breed.)

After a teen stole her purse and iPhone while she waited for the N train at Fifth Avenue, 29-year-old shoe designer Sayaka Fukuda arrived home to find that her assailant had used the device to e-mail a photo of himself. Fukuda tells the Post, "I checked my e-mail and saw something in my outbox. I opened the attachment, and there he was with his black and red knitted [Spider-Man] hat." After combing through mug shots, cops zeroed in on 18-year-old Daquan Mathis. But before they made the collar, Fukuda initiated a correspondence with the suspect, telling him, "Thank you for your picture. I sent them to the cops, you're going to get arrested soon." To which Mathis allegedly replied, "I will kill you! I know where you live, I know where you work. I'll send people." Before he could make good on his threats, the NYPD arrested him Thursday; sources say he confessed to two other crimes, including another robbery on an N train in which he stole an iPod at gunpoint. Of course, this isn't the first time a mugger's been busted by the very gadget he stole.

Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler is being called a hero for breaking up a mugging in midtown last night. The Daily News reports that Skyler "tackled a perp who stole a woman's cell phone on a midtown street." He "wrestled with the teenaged thief on 48th St. and knocked the phone out of his hands."

A gang of transvestite teenagers has been arrested and charged with mugging women in the West Village. Brooklyn's Jubril "Dominic" Faggins and Jhirad "Shanese" Powell are accused of robbing women in The Archive, a prestigious apartment building on Greenwich Street. After robbing a woman there in January, they then charged $3,639 to the woman's credit cards on wigs and women's cl othes and jewelry at stores at the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn. Powell told police, "It was Destiny [another transvestite] that told me to rob the white bitch. I grabbed the bag off her and punched her while Shanese was holding her down." The Post notes that the building the group would return to for another robbery is "the onetime home to Monica Lewinsky, designer Michael Kors and actress Jennifer Connelly. "

The Post reports that a woman was attacked and mugged while walking her dog in Central Park last night. The woman "said she was attacked at East Drive and 91st Street at about 9:45 p.m." Apparently the mugger hit her with a metal object and then took her "gold and diamond wedding ring and her watch," which were worth $15,000. She was treated at a hospital for a head laceration.

The two men arrested last month for a series of muggings that sent residents of the West Village into a panic were in court yesterday where it was revealed that each of them had attempted to shirk off the brunt of the responsibility onto the other when they had been questioned by cops. 30-year-old Anhtony Lindsay and 21-year-old Adam Temple, the pair of Brooklyn men whom the Post calls "half-witted half-brothers," both pleaded not guilty and remain in jail with bail set at $500,000. Lindsay claims the robberies were Temple's idea and swore to cops, "I didn't have the gun," while Temple recounted one of the robberies where "Adam grabbed (the victim), and I went for the purse. She Maced me when I grabbed her bag. We both let go and ran away toward the train station." The men were caught just one night before Christine Quinn was holding a meeting to address the alarming situation that left one woman bloodied with her jaw broken.

More details on the two suspects arrested Monday night in connection with a series of violent muggings in the West Village: the Post, in an article headlined "Village Vermin Busted," hears from an anonymous source in the NYPD, who says cops spotted them "lurking in the shadows of a building. Something was not right. They took off immediately." A witness describes the high-profile bust: "Two cop cars pulled up and other cops were running down the middle of street. The cop cars screeched up to the intersection. It was very dramatic. Neighbors even stuck their heads out their windows to watch. They were saying, 'Did they get them? Did they get them?'" And one of the suspects, 21-year-old Adam Temple of Crown Heights, allegedly tossed a 9 mm pistol aside before being tackled. The Post says he was later found with a stolen credit card.

Police say they've arrested two men in connection with a recent crime spree in the West Village, which left one woman with a broken jaw and other residents of the quaint neighborhood feeling terrorized. An NYPD source tells the Post that Adam Temple, 21, of Hampton Place in Brooklyn, and Anthony Lindsay, 30, of Park Place in Brooklyn, were arrested late last night. The two are suspected of perpetrating violent muggings which targeted mostly white women; in each incident the victim was approached from behind by two males, hit and then mugged. Last week City Council Speaker Christine Quinn sent an email to residents warning them to remain alert and to beware of "strangers asking for directions."

Last year, the vicious mugging attacks on two elderly women—one 101 years old (Rose Morat, pictured with bruises on her face), the other 85 years old—shocked the city and led to a police dragnet to find suspect Jack Rhodes. On Thursday, a mistrial was declared, after, the Daily News explains, "the juror forewoman cried about missing work and wanting to see her mother." The forewoman said, "This case has been taking a long time...I'm going to have to fly to see my mom." Rhodes, who faces up to 25 years in jail for the alleged muggings that net him $65 and some jewelry, will probably be retried; Morat, now 102, taped her testimony earlier this year.

In response to a recent spate of violent muggings in the West Village, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has sent an email to constituents warning them to "remain alert." In the email, Quinn cites six violent muggings that have occurred in the neighborhood from November 15th to December 4th, explaining that "every time, the victim was approached from behind by two males, hit and then mugged. This past Monday, the 6th Precinct formally declared these muggings to be a pattern." (This contradicts the Post's earlier report, citing NYPD sources dismissing the notion a pattern was emerging.) In the most recent attack, a young woman's jaw was broken during a mugging near The Spotted Pig. Quinn's email details exactly where the crimes took place but does not include a description of the suspects. And she assures residents that the 6th Precinct's Anti-Crime Unit, in conjunction with the NYPD City Wide Robbery Squad, will beef up their presence in the area.

Maybe not anymore; the unidentified victim says that when she noticed her two assailants walking toward her down the block, even "from a distance, I felt like they didn't belong. I had a strange feeling." She believes one of the men had a gun. "They pushed me to the ground... I crumbled pretty easily because I thought it was a gun... I started screaming, 'I don't know what you want. I'll give you whatever you want. They continued to punch me.'" Thankfully, she was able to get her hands on her mace and sprayed the thugs in the face. They made off with her earrings, and she got taken to St. Vincent's with a broken jaw.

Bad story with good ending: WABC 7 reports that two men who "beat and robbed a 70-year-old woman were arrested after they mistook an undercover police car for a livery cab and tried to hail it to flee the scene." Really! Apparently the men had attacked the elderly woman in a Bronx apartment building on Tuesday, after kicking her and stealing her wallet. They ran out to the street and "noticed a light blue car and thought it was a livery cab, so they stopped, breathless on the street, and tried to hail it." But inside were undercover cops, who asked the two muggers for ID. And one of the men came up with the mugging victim's ID--then claiming he picked it up off the sidewalk. It gets better, too: They were arrested when the victim was being transported on a stretcher by EMT workers-- "The ambulance stopped near the car, and the woman identified the suspects."

The Post reports that Harlem resident Marie Conde fought off three muggers--chasing down two of them--"because [her purse] had her green card in it." The 26-year-old, who fell asleep on a 3 train this past Sunday when, woke at 5:30 a.m. when "three punks confronted her as it pulled into the 72nd Street station." One punched her in the right eye and another grabbed her purse. Conde said, "I didn't know what to do, so I just started running after them," holding onto one of them and yelling for help. One mugger said, "Leave him alone! He's my friend!" The police managed to arrest two suspects, while the man who grabbed her purse is still at large. A law enforcement source told the Post that crime victims "shouldn't take matters in your own hands like that. It could be very dangerous, and potentially lethal," but did say Conde was brave, "She is one bad-ass mama."

Bronx resident Diogenes Angeles showed three young men he's no shrinking grandfather: The Daily News reports that Angeles "dusted off his karate skills" yesterday when "Eugene Sanchez, 19, Rakeem Johnson, 23, and Jason Lopez, 25, taunted and then attacked" him. The 57-year-old managed to defend himself and the attackers ran away, only to be arrested by the police later and charged with robbery, possession of stolen property and resisting arrest (Sanchez also bit a cop's hand; the News has a picture of the perps, one of whom is wearing seriously baggy jeans). Angeles learned karate when he was a teen and has practiced every day, explaining, "We live in a city where you leave your house and you don't know what's going to happen. You need to be able to defend yourself."