Police are investigating three sexual assaults that took place in Brooklyn and Queens in the span of 24 hours this weekend. The first reported incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, when a woman grabbed at knifepoint in Springfield Gardens, Queens, on 145th Road near the Belt Parkway. The unidentified woman was walking home when she was tackled from behind by a man who tried to sexually assault her. Police sources tell NY1 that her assailant ran off when she screamed for help.
Three Women Sexually Assaulted In Brooklyn, Queens
Police Focus On Suspiciously Silent Dog During Execution-Style Slaying
Investigators have not named any suspects in the execution-style murder of a Queens couple in their home early Friday morning, but police sources seem skeptical about their son's account of the slaying. Sugrim Jaggarnauth was shot once in the head, while his wife Rosie was shot "multiple times" in the head and body by the shooter, who absconded with the family car, a Toyota Rav4. The couple's youngest son, Shane, was also shot in the shoulder during the home invasion and survived; the Post reports that he'd been letting his pit bull, Princess, outside at 4 a.m. when (according to Shane) the gunman burst through the door, shot him, and ran to kill his parents in their bedroom. Now police want to know why Princess never made a peep.
Police Investigating Son In Queens Couple Execution-Style Killing
Early yesterday morning, a Queens couple were fatally shot execution-style while they were sleeping in their home. Police are now investigating whether Sugrin and Rosie Jaggarnauth's 23-year-old son Shane, who survived being shot in the shoulder in the Springfield Gardens home, had anything to do with the incident. He described the attack to police as an "ambush," but couldn't describe the shooter: "You get shot and your family gets killed, and you don't see the shooter's face, blue jeans, sneakers, nothing? That just doesn't make a lot of sense," a police source told the News.
Update: Queens Couple Fatally Shot Execution-Style In Their Bed
A Queens couple were fatally shot execution-style while they were sleeping in their home early this morning. The couple's 23-year-old son, who was also sleeping in the Springfield Gardens house, was shot in the shoulder, but is expected to survive. "Everybody here knows the family. It doesn't make sense, it puzzles me, I don't know what's going on. They just came through and murdered the whole family," said distraught family friend Melissa McGregor.
Car Hit By SUV Flips Over, Passenger Dies
A Mitsubishi Montero SUV that tried to pass a Dodge Charger in Queens ended up sending the Charger into a horrible crash, killing a 19-year-old passenger on Friday night. According to the Daily News, "Police sources said [SUV driver Luis] Forero failed to pass the Charger and smashed into it, sending it careening into a fence and launching it onto its roof, where it slid upside down for about 150 feet." There's also a terrible picture of the mangled Charger.
Driver Hits Two Children Playing In Queens Yard
A four-year-old girl is in critical condition after a driver apparently lost control of his car, driving into her Springfield Gardens home's front yard and striking her and her 11-year-old brother. Aicha Sylla was pinned between the car and house, and the Daily News reports that her father tried to attack the driver; a witness said, "It was horrible, really horrible. Everybody was crying. The father was going crazy." The driver was arrested—but not for driving his car into the yard and hitting two kids.
Latest City Bug Scare: Termites!
From the looks of it, that Life After People show might not be so far off. The city has been overrun by bedbugs. We've got stink bugs, coyotes, opossums, raccoons, rats, snakes, gators and lice. And while those beasts have been content to stay out of human affairs (save for the occasional bite), termites are now determined to take out the power in Queens. Nature: nature's most dangerous killer.
Cops Crashing South Queens House Parties
Wanting to stop them before they turn "deadly," elected officials are giving a south Queens unit the go-ahead to crash house parties in the area. The unit was formed earlier this year, but because of multiple shootings during such parties recently, Assistant Chief James Secreto said, "we had to move it up in priority." Just last June, one person was killed and two were injured during a drive-by shooting outside of a house party in Jamaica. One Queens native said, "Having lived out here I know how important it is to curb these parties before they get out of hand."
Ex-Boyfriend Charged In Fatal Queens Arson
The Queens District Attorney's office announced that Jimmy Humphrey, 23, was charged with arson and assault for the Springfield Gardens apartment fire that left a pregnant 25-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son dead. Humphrey apparently was the father of the Linda Anderson's unborn child. Queens DA Richard Brown said, "The senseless death of this young woman and her infant child cries out for justice.”
Probe Into Fatal Fire That Killed Pregnant Woman, 2-Year-Old
The Fire Department is investigating a fatal Springfield Gardens fire that claimed the lives of a pregnant woman and her two-year-old son yesterday morning. According to the Daily News, "The cause of the deadly fire was not immediately known, but detectives are exploring the possibility it may have been set intentionally, police sources said." The fire started on a couch in the second story apartment in a two-family home; there was a smoke detector, but it was placed too low for it to pick up the smoke.
Pregnant Woman, Young Son Killed In Queens Fire
Neighbors say that a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old son were killed in a fire in Springfield Gardens, Queens. According to WABC 7, the victims were "apparently trapped in their home on Anderson Road when fire broke out just before 5 a.m... Officials say the fire started on the couch, and firefighters were able to quickly put out the flames.. Police say the smoke detector in the building was working, but it was placed too low, and never went off." The mother and child were pronounced dead at Queens Hospital. Neighbors, who didn't even realize there was a fire in the building, say the victims were Lisa Anderson and her son Aidan.
8-Year-Old And Toddler Die In Queens House Fire
Two children died of smoke inhalation in a house fire in Springfield Gardens, Queens yesterday morning. Tyanthony Duckette, 8, was safely outside the burning home when he ran back in an attempt to save his l17-month-old brother, Daniel Wilson. The children's mother, Sonia Wilson, told WCBS 2, "I just remember yesterday, we were in the park, and we were just playing tag and all having fun, and as I was walking in the street, I was cradling Daniel, and I never thought that would be the last time we would go to the park together."
Police Search For Suspect In Queens BBQ Shooting
Police released a sketch of a man wanted in for questioning in the early Sunday morning shooting at a Queens BBQ that left one person dead and five others injured. The party, which was at a Springfield Gardens home at 182nd Street and 145th Drive, was an annual celebration of IS 238 graduates. This year, there were 200 people attending, because the invitation "went viral online" through Twitter and Facebook. The Post reports, "With the invite touting a deejay and free food and booze, 318 Facebook friends had said they would attend."
Shooting At Queens BBQ Leaves 1 Dead, 5 Injured
Earlier this morning, around 2:30 a.m., shooting broke out during a BBQ at a home the Springfield Gardens section of Queens, at 182nd Street and 145th Drive, leaving one dead and other injured According to WABC 7, "Police say a man in his 20s was killed," from a shot to the head, and the others injured are "two men, ages 25 and 21, who were each shot in the leg; a 23-year-old man who was shot in back; a 22-year-old woman shot in the shoulder; and a 21-year-old woman who was shot in both hands." All are in stable condition.
Teen Shot And Killed At Queens Party
A teen was shot and killed at a party in Queens last night, though the circumstances of the murder are unclear according to initial reports. According to the Daily News, the victim was 18-year-old Kendrick Morrow, who was shot around 2 a.m. after a brawl at a house party on 176th Street got pushed outside. But the Post says Morrow was 17, and was shot after two older men crashed a club party being thrown by a teenage girl. The bouncers decided to kick everyone out once the men started making trouble, and Morrow was shot while trying to retrieve friends from inside.
Water Main Breaks, Queens Neighborhood Flooded
A 12-inch water main near the intersection of 140th Avenue and 159th Street in Springfield Gardens, Queens broke before 5 a.m. this morning, leaving many street flooded and some residents with six feet of water in their homes. Residents, including one from a home where a cesspool/sewage line broke, are being evacuated or told to move their cars. One resident lamented to WABC 7, "My whole room is totally underwater, I loss everything. What I have on my back is all I have left." The main is reportedly from 1969.
Wife Feared For Her Safety Before Queens Murder-Suicide
Just months before high-school administrator Dionne Coy-Bailey and her two teenage daughters were found murdered in their Queens home, the assistant principal said she didn't feel safe since her husband had bought a gun. Coy-Bailey even moved out of the 230th Place residence for a few weeks in December with her younger daughter because her husband wouldn't get rid of the high-powered assault rifle. Officials say Mark Bailey used that kill his wife and children yesterday before shooting himself once in the forehead.
Queens Man Dies Trying To Retrieve Cellphone From Fire
A 75-year-old man perished in a Queens house fire yesterday when he ran back into the blaze to get his cellphone. Air Force veteran Nathan Lagree had already helped his wife and his eight-months-pregnant daughter escape from their single-family home in Springfield Gardens at around 6:20 am when he realized he forgot his phone.
Queens Drug Den Discovered to be Wild Animal House
A drug bust in Springfeild Gardens led cops to a homemade zoo inside a home housing three geckos, two marmosets, three tarantulas, a monitor lizard, a snake, a baby caiman and two iguanas. Animal control was called in to bring in the illegal animals along with seven adult pitbulls, a bulldog and a puppy pitbull with cropped ears. An 84-year-old man who lives nearby said, "This is a nice block. Sometimes things like this happen, but I'm not leaving." [via NYDN]
Judge's Home in Queens Shot Up
The home of an acting Supreme Court Justice currently hearing domestic violence cases was hit by gunfire early yesterday morning. Bullets hit the dining room wall and an upstairs bedroom wall at Justice Fernando Camacho's Springfield Gardens house. He and his family were in Montauk at the time of the shooting; they actually sold the house but were awaiting bank approval of the buyers. The police are investigating whether the gunfire was meant for the judge or perhaps his neighbor, who was in a dispute with someone else. Camacho was previously a Manhattan prosecutor who, per the NY Times, helped bring down "such notorious gangs as the Jheri Curls, from Washington Heights, and the Wild Cowboys."
Multiple Sexual Attacks Reported in Queens
The police are investigating a sex attack reported by a 16-year-old. The girl was grabbed on her way to school, threatened with a box cutter and assaulted behind an abandoned church, and police are investigating the possibility the attacker may be the same as the one in a series of earlier assaults. And WNBC reports there are two more reports of attacks--another in Springfield Gardens and the other in South Ozone Park.
Suspect in Doorway Shooting of 11-Year-Old Arrested
Police arrested a suspect in the shooting of 11-year-old Tyshaun Falconer as he stood in the doorway of his parents' home in Springfield Gardens, Queens. The suspect is identified as 19-year-old Michael Peterson of Elmont, Long Island. Peterson allegedly went to the Falconer home and when Tyshaun answered the door asked for his older brother Tony. When the younger brother answered that he was not home, Peterson is accused of shooting him once in the chest.
Queens Shooting Victim: "Daddy, I Think I Got Shot"
It was an ordinary Sunday night in Springfield Gardens, Queens, but it turned violent when an 11-year-old boy was shot after answering the door. The father the victim, Tyshaun Falconer, says his son told him, "Daddy, I think I got shot." Tyshaun, a student at I.S 59, had told the person at the door that his older brother, Tony Falconer Jr., was not at home right before the hooded man shot him in the chest.
11-Year-Old Shot While Answering the Door
What kind of world do we live in when an 11-year-old boy gets shot in the chest while answering the front door? Tyshaun Falconer is in critical condition after a gunman fired at him on 224th Street in Springfield Gardens, Queens.
Shot Bodega Owner on Life Support
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 unclear whether the robbers saw Cruz's gun. Cruz is not expected to survive.
St. John's Names New Coach
Gothamist hopes that this will mean a return of college basketball in the city. Until then, we'll always have Manhattan.

