An off-duty cop has been charged with killing a man while allegedly driving drunk early Wednesday morning in the Bronx. According to police, rookie officer Luis Arnao, 25, struck Tyre Chisholm, 22, with his 2011 Honda Accord as Chisholm was crossing the street on White Plains Road near 241st Street just before 4 a.m. "He got hit hard. He flew up in the air. His shoes flew off with his socks still in them," said witness Devine Douglas. more ›

During the fall, diminutive running back Danny Woodhead went from Jets reject to Patriots star RB, climaxing with him going undercover at a Modell's, trying to sell his own jersey to customers. Now, the Knicks' high-achieving rookie Landry Fields has been recruited for the same role: in disguise as "Leeroy Jenkins, employee of the month," he tires to sell customers on #6 Landry Fields jerseys (with little success). You can see the comically inept video below. more ›

Anticipation has reached a fever pitch for next Saturday's Fifth Annual Vendy Awards, the Oscars/Golden Globes/MTV Music Award/Olympics of street food, and now organizers have sprayed lighter fluid on the flames of our excitement by announcing the finalists in a completely new category: Rookie Vendor of the Year. The four contenders are NYC Cravings (Taiwanese), Schnitzel & Things (Austrian), Picnick Smoked ("Good for You BBQ"), and fabulous frontrunner Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (self-explanatory). But Big Gay is also nominated for the best dessert truck category, so voters could surprise the food world by honoring truck owner Doug Quint (right) in that category, like that time Kate Winslet won for The Reader, not for her devastating work in the superior Revolutionary Road. The nominees were selected by elite members of the food blog mafia, and the awards, which serve as a fundraiser for the Street Vendor Project, will be held on the 26th at the Queens Museum of Art. The tax-deductible tickets, which are almost sold out, get you food from the vendors and an open bar. Here's a look back at last year's Vendy's, which was a big win for Calexico. more ›

Former rookie NYC transit officer Christian Torres has pleaded guilty to twice robbing a Sovereign branch on the Lower East Side in 2007. The robberies netted $116,000 and were almost completely successful, thanks in part to his 20-year-old girlfriend Christina Dasrath, who worked as a teller at the bank. (She still claims Torres tricked her into helping him, and describes him as her first love.) Torres, 23, only got busted for those jobs when cops pulled him over after robbing $113,000 from a Sovereign branch in Pennsylvania last April. Dasrath is currently serving a two and a half year sentence, and Torres is doing a ten year bid in the Keystone State. While pleading guilty yesterday, Torres blamed the crime spree on the low salaries allotted rookie cops. more ›

262 new cops, poised to graduate and start policing on July 2nd, gathered at Harlem's Apollo Theater yesterday for training on cross-cultural understanding, or, as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly puts it, "immersion training." For some rookies, it probably doesn't get more immersive than a visit from Rev. Al Sharpton, who was on hand to warn officers that "in most of our communities there's a tremendous fear of the cops and the robbers seem to be winning." But Sharpton's best sound bite came after the gathering, when he told reporters, "To me, it's always successful to be in a room full of police and not leave with my hands in cuffs." Yesterday marked the fourth and final day of mandatory diversity training, which was initiated after Sean Bell was shot and killed by plainclothes police officers in 2006; the sessions also come in the wake of the fatal cop-on-cop shooting in Harlem last month. The NYPD has been criticized for conducting a record-breaking number of stop-and-frisk searches this year, which groups like the NYCLU say disproportionately target minorities. Oh, and critics have also objected to the sodomy. more ›

USC quarterback Mark Sanchez made a splash when he was the number 5 NFL draft pick last month—and now he's doing it this month with a photo spread in GQ magazine. The new Jets player is modeling swimwear (not kissing mirrors, the way A-Rod did in Details), though he did say about one pair, "I wouldn’t necessarily be caught in those shorts." more ›

A bit more detail has emerged regarding the Tuesday afternoon shooting of a teen who pointed an unloaded gun at an unidentified rookie NYPD officer in Brownsville. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne tells the Times that 18-year-old Akeem Harvey was stopped by officers for a "stop-and-frisk" because he was "wearing a hat and bandanna in a way that is associated with the Crips gang." When one officer noticed Harvey's bullet holder, he allegedly ran from the cops, but stopped when his revolver dropped out of his pants leg. The NYPD says Harvey picked it up and crouched, pointing the gun at the first officer, who was about five feet away. After Harvey ignored the officer's orders to "Drop it," the cop fired once, striking the teen in the chin. According to the police spokesman, the officer acted within the department’s guidelines; Harvey is listed in stable condition in Brookdale University Hospital. more ›

An unidentified rookie NYPD officer shot 18-year-old Akeem Harvey in the face yesterday after the teen ran from officers during a "stop and frisk" outside a corner store in Brownsville. Police sources tell the Daily News that Harvey "acted nervous and kept adjusting his waistband" when police approached him at approximately 2:30 p.m. near Winthrop Avenue and East 93rd Street. Harvey then bolted and started running toward his home, but the police say he "fumbled" and dropped his .357-magnum revolver (pictured, via MyFox NY). more ›

Here rookie, have a machine gun. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly is making sure 1,000 rookie police officers assigned to Times Square on New Year's Eve are ready to rock with M4 automatic machine guns. Recruits at the academy will get three days of training to familiarize them with the weapon, which until now had only been used by officers in the NYPD's elite Emergency Service Unit. The New York Post exclusive is a bit vague on whether the cops will be given the machine guns during the festivities or if they'll only be armed in the event of a Mumbai-inspired massacre. Either way, isn't it a comfort to know that Ryan Seacrest, Taylor Swift, and The Jonas Brothers could all go down simultaneously in a blaze of Barney Fife automatic gunfire? (You know Dick Clark isn't sweating it; that dude's like the Highlander.) more ›

A 27-year-old rookie police officer turned a drunken assignation into a felony rape charge earlier this week. Kevin Johnson allegedly met a number of women at a midtown bar Monday night and accompanied them back to the Gershwin Hotel, where the women were staying on East 27th St. They were visiting New York for a hairdressers convention, and Johnson reportedly had consensual sex with one of them. more ›