Results tagged “screwdriver”

An NYPD officer was in court yesterday, being charged with first-degree attempted murder for hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife. Long Island native 42-year-old Anthony Battisti (pictured), a Queens cop who has been on the force for 17 years, is accused of paying his handyman $5,000 to kill his ex-wife Patricia. Timothy Gersbeck, the 37-year-old handyman from Levittown, was arrested in January for stabbing Patricia Battisti in the neck with a screwdriver multiple times, an attack outside the Battistis Franklin Square house that she survived. Prosecutors say that Anthony Battisti was jealous that his wife had begun dating a NYC firefighter.

Yesterday, police arrested Juan Reyes, 19, in the killing of 13-year-old Miguel Saavedra. Miguel (pictured) was fatally stabbed with a screwdriver on Wednesday night in Sheepshead Bay around 7:30 p.m. According to police, "Mr. Reyes and two of his friends had argued with Miguel at a park earlier Wednesday... Mr. Reyes and Miguel, who both lived nearby, had also argued two days earlier." The nature of the dispute was not disclosed, but the Daily News reports "it apparently stemmed from a beef between the suspects and Miguel's brother." Witnesses tell the NY Times they saw a man on a bike chasing Miguel and another boy: "They initially thought that the bicyclist was punching Miguel. By the time [Vernon] Wade realized there was a long screwdriver in the attacker’s hand, he said, it was too late." Another witness who ran to help Miguel and started to call for help says the boy told him, "No police, no police. They were chasing us. They stabbed me. I have to go," before managing to walk half a block and collapsing. Reyes has a 2006 arrest for cocaine and knife possession.