A 17-year-old who was given a 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 as a starting-college gift was driving in Queens when the car hit a guard rail, "became airborne for 100 feet," and finally hit a concrete pillar. Two passengers, 18-year-olds Devindra Harilal and Christopher Karan, were killed. Police believe driver Sansay Misir was speeding at 50MPH while trying to make a sharp turn on the Van Wyck Expressway. The car also flipped over - there's a......

A 66-year-old man driving a Nissan Maxima was fatally hit by a drunk driver on Woodhaven Boulevard, between 101st Avenue and 97th Avenue in Ozone Park. Twenty-five-year-old Christopher Rivera, driving a Honda Accord, crossed the road's median around 10:45PM and slammed into the Maxima driving in the opposite direction. The Maxima then hit a third car, a BMW. The Maxima's driver was pronounced dead at the scene, his passenger was injured, as well as Rivera......

Police believe that 14-year-old Mohammed Nasser acted in self-defense when he fatally stabbed his stepfather on Wednesday night. Nasser said, "Well, he threatened me and my family, so I had to do what I had to do to protect my brother and my mother and my other little brother." Newsday reports that Nasser's stepfather Arturo Moreno was drunk when he arrived at the Ozone Park home he shared with Nasser's mother, Arwa Moreno, Wednesday night.......

A 50-year-old NJ resident was killed by a drunk driver early yesterday morning in Ozone Park, Queens. The Post reports that Teresa Mankarious, who was driving back from Long Island with her fiance, had gotten out of her car at the Esquire Diner to walk their dog. While on the sidewalk, a car driven by 23-year-old Woodhaven resident Michael Barlow was suddenly on the sidewalk and hit her, throwing her 50 feet. She was pronounced......

Police are wondering if two recent, consecutive bodega robberies in Queens were committed by the same robbers whose June crime spree left a bodega owner dead. The Post reports that two Monday night robberies have similar M.O.s to and seem to match descriptions in seventeen other robberies this year: The thieves hit a bodega, threatening employees and customers with guns, demanding cash, and after robbing the store, they head to another one. The Post also......

The police are reportedly looking for three to four suspects wanted in the fatal robbery of a Queens bodega owner on Monday. Bolivar Cruz (pictured) died on Tuesday after being shot in the head by robbers suspected of holding up over 15 other bodegas in Queens over the past few months. The robbers managed to steal $300 from Cruz's store. The police have been questioning Michael Lane, 17, in connection with the incident, after the......

The saga of the issuance of Official New York license plates to people, businesses, and groups that are not a part of the government continues. Yesterday, the Daily News followed up with a story about how the New York Public Library received several sets of the plates for its vehicles. In case you didn't know, the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Borough Public Library are not a part of the city......

After two days on life support, the 56-year-old bodega owner, who was shot in the face during a robbery attempt, died yesterday morning and police continued their search for the group suspected of robbing a number of bodegas over the past four months. Police Commissioner Kelly said the robbers are "certainly" considered "dangerous," but Cruz's family wonders why the police didn't tell the community about the robberies. One of Cruz's eight children, Karina Cruz, asked,......

The police continued to look for the robbers who shot a Queens bodega owner in the face on Monday night. Bolivar Cruz, a Dominican immigrant, is still on life support; the Post reports that two of his seven daughters were working in store at the time and that Cruz tried to protect them. According to Police Commissioner Kelly, Cruz did take out a gun (unlicensed) but did not get a chance to fire it. It's......

Last night, a bodega owner in Queens was shot in the face during an attempted robbery. Bolivar Cruz, father of seven, is now in critical condition, and police suspect that the robbery might be connected to another robbery - and to many others in the area. Cruz was closing his Kennedy Mini Market at 131st Street in South Ozone Park when three men entered and shot him at 9:30PM. There was another robbery 10 minutes......

A father of six was murdered yesterday morning. Fifty-one-year-old Courtney Atkinson had been wiring money to three of his children living in the Caribbean at a Checkbusters in his South Ozone Park neighborhood when he was shot to death. Police believe that a robber targeted Atkinson in hopes of getting cash. They believe Atkinson tried to fight off the mugger, who then shot three times with a .380 during the struggle. It's unclear if the......

A driver, either "emotionally disturbed" or simply drunk, caused a crazy, violent scene yesterday in Ozone Park, Queens. Fifty-year-old Joseph Leonardi had been driving the wrong way on 83rd Street, when his car "hopped onto the sidewalk," according to the Sun. The car was headed towards Sister Hannah Marie Cox, but a Good Samaritan Juan Valez pushed her away and the Buick hit a tree and a building. Leonardi got out of car and ran......

Twelve-year old Jacob Colon was killed after being hit by a speeding Mercedes-Benze while crossing 108th Street at Atlantic Avenue yesterday. Colon was going home after helping his mother at her laundromat job. Moments before the fatal accident the Mercedes driver rear-ended a Toyota on 112th Street. According to the Daily News, when the driver of the Toyota suggested calling the police the Mercedes driver offered to pay him instead. When the teenager insisted......

There is an incredible feature about British author Will Self visiting NYC in the NY Times Arts section. Why a feature and why so incredible? Well, Self decided to walk from JFK Airport to Manhattan - all 20 miles - and Times writer at large Charles McGrath and Times photographer Casey Kelbaugh went along for the journey, too. So it's incredibly brilliant and incredibly nuts at the same time. There's a great map of......

There are more questions than answers today as the police investigate an encounter three men had with the police in Queens early Saturday morning. The police ended up shooting at the men's car, killing a man on the day of his wedding and wounding his two friends. The men were not armed. The three men, Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman, and Trent Benefield, had just left the Kalua Lounge, a strip club, for Bell's bachelor......

A truly upsetting story: The Queens DA charged a 37 year old day care center aide with raping a 4 year old three times over the year. Khemwhatie Bedessie, who worked at a private Ozone Park day care center that charged parents $100 a week to watch their children, turned herself in yesterday, confessing the crime. Police had been alerted by doctors, who examined the little boy after he told his parents about the encounters......

Yikes: A woman, looking for a cab to go to JFK, was assault by a man who claimed to be a livery cab driver. Apparently the man, in a black Lincoln Town car, approached the woman in Ozone Park on Sunday's snowy morning and said he could take her to JFK. She accepted, but he later threatened her with a knife near 115th Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard and made her "perform a sexual act." The......

Early yesterday morning, three armed robbers stole thousands of dollars from a post office in Crown Heights. Postal workers who were sorting mail before opening hours were forced to lie on the floor as the manager was asked to open the safe at the James E. Davis Post Office at 315 Empire Boulevard. Since the post office is a government property, the robbery would be a federal offense; investigators are looking at the possibilities that......

A NJ man hit a pedestrian in Queens and then, a few block later, crashed into a car, killing one of the passengers. The driver, Anand Hazare, later abandoned his car and called the police to report that he was carjacked; he will be charged with murder, DWI, leaving the scene of an accident and falsely reporting an incident. Shivanand Patraju was in the backseat of Shastri Soogrim's Suburban; when Soogrim saw Hazare's Mitsubishi Eclipse......

NY1 reports that the city has been installing back up power for traffic lights at 420 major intersections in the city, you know, in case anything happens. Perhaps the Department of Transportation is worried about an electrician cutting a very important cable by accident! NY1 references the Blackout of 2005 where New Yorkers had to direct traffic themselves, which was one of many great moments that showed how New Yorkers can take matters into their......

Early yesterday morning, three black men who were walking in the predominantly white neighborhood of Howard Beach, Queens, were attacked by white men. Two of the men managed to flee, but one, Glenn Moore, had tripped on a curb was beaten badly by the attacked; he now has a fractured skull. The police are calling this a hate crime, as the attackers allegedly used racial epithets. The three black men, Moore, Richard Pope and Richard......

Michele Zipp, Writer, ex-Editor-in-Chief, Playgirl...

After having been fired because of he wore a turban, and then re-hired because the firing violated his civil liberties, the next chapter of Sikh MTA motorman Kevin Harrington unfolded: The MTA made him put a patch on his turban (as the Daily News photo at left shows). For the love of Karma. Gothamist knows very little about Sikh tradition, but even we know that this seems blasphemous. Of course, Harrington, a 25 year veteran......