The 20-year-old woman who was charged with self-abortion for the death of her 24-week fetus arrived in court today to find out that the Manhattan DA's office was dropping the charges. DNAinfo reports the prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge Yaribely Almonte. more ›

A man who was arrested for attempted larceny in Washington Heights died in police custody after suffering an apparent asthma attack last night. The 52-year-old suspect, whose name hasn't been released yet, was allegedly caught breaking into a car; he fled into Tommy’s Grill, near the corner of West 158th and Broadway where police caught up with him. As he was being arrested, he told officers he was having difficulty breathing and said he had an asthma inhaler in his pocket. more ›

One man was killed and another wounded in a shootout in Washington Heights early Saturday morning. According to DNAInfo, a 30-year-old man was fatally shot numerous times in the head in a car in front of 555 Edgecombe Ave., near 160th Street, shortly after 1:30 a.m. Another 31-year-old man was shot multiple times to the chest, and is in critical condition at Harlem Hospital. "I’ve lived here 17 years and nothing like this has ever happened. This is insane," a witness told them. more ›

Police say that a 65-year-old was robbed and slashed in the face and chest while taking out her garbage outside her Washington Heights building. The incident occurred last Wednesday around 8:30 p.m. and WABC 7 reports, "She says he slashed her in the face and chest with a box cutter when she didn't have the cash, keys and cell phone he demanded." more ›

A woman pregnant with twins has been arrested and accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend after they fought in her Washington Heights apartment early yesterday morning. Kelly Lopez-Roldan, 22, was arrested for the murder of 24-year-old Antoine Scott. He was found with stab wounds to his chest shortly before 2:30 a.m. at 450 W. 164th Street. And sources tell the Post that Lopez-Roldan plans to argue she committed the act in self-defense. more ›

Yesterday, the NYPD announced that a 20-year-old woman was charged with self-abortion, after a Washington Heights building super found the body of a fetus in a trash can. There have only been four other cases where women have been charged with self-abortion in the first or second degree since 1980: The NY Times reports, "Three of those cases, from Nassau County in 2006 and 2010 and from Monroe County in 2000, ended in dismissal. A first-degree case in Wayne County in 2006 resulted in a sentence of conditional discharge, meaning the charge would be dismissed if the woman did not get into trouble again." more ›

The body of a newborn baby girl was found in a Washington Heights alley on Tuesday. Now police have charged the mother of the baby with self-abortion. more ›

At 10:30 this morning, elected officials and neighborhood civic leaders began marching 11 miles from 181st and St. Nicholas down to Zuccotti Park, in an event dubbed "End to End for 99%" that seeks to link the communities of Northern Manhattan and the Bronx with the movement in Lower Manhattan. "Our communities have been devastated by the economic assault on middle class and poor families, even as Wall Street has enjoyed a historic financial bonanza," State Senator Adriano Espaillat said in a statement. "We're marching for jobs, we're marching for affordable housing, we're marching for the millionaire's tax," city councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez says. more ›

A 14-year-old Bronx boy has turned himself in for the murder of an 18-year-old young man in Washington Heights early Saturday. Alvin Diaz is being charged with second-degree murder after police say he fatally stabbed Dereck Cabejas in the chest; the murder was allegedly committed in reaction to a water fight two days earlier. more ›

Two women say they were driven out of the Washington Heights apartment they just moved into by an infestation of bats that kept them up all night and possibly bit them in their sleep. Holy smokes! And now, the women are suing the landlord for a cool $1 million. more ›

Yesterday's deadly naked knife rampage in Washington Heights has claimed a second victim. A 60-year-old woman, who was a neighbor of 23-year-old alleged assailant Christian Falero and whom he is said to have stabbed in the eye and chest, died earlier today. Meanwhile, the son of the one of the victims has told reporters that the reason Falero went mad was a simple one: yesterday's earthquake. more ›

A naked 23-year-old man went on a bloody stabbing rampage in his own apartment building yesterday afternoon, killing one and seriously injuring three others, before running outside to cut himself and beg to be put out of his misery, police say. Christian Falero was heard to be muttering about the end days when he got outside of the building at 812 Riverside Drive in Manhattan, but police suspect the motive for the outburst—which included stabbing one 60-year-old woman in her chest and eye—was just "psychotic." One witness recalled seeing him "walking down the street naked, covered in blood. He was just saying stuff that didn't make sense, talking about how the world was going to end." more ›

Better pause production on those "Ray Kelly For Mayor" bumper stickers: nine police precincts have seen a surge in crime in recent weeks, including the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights [pdf], and the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg [pdf]. more ›

Yesterday, three members of a Washington Heights family died after a horrifying crash on I-95 in North Carolina. NC authorities say the SUV blew a tire, making driver Rosanny Marte, 22, lose control. more ›

New York native Emmanuel Abreu (aka DJBoy) filmed some locals in Washington Heights cooling down on July 22nd, when temperatures reached 104 degrees. Their method: taking running dives onto soaked trash bags on the street. Check it out in this gorgeous video: more ›

We knew there was a reason people think he's the best mayor this town's ever seen! Rudy Giuliani, who's been busy hosting AMC's Mob Week, visited Jimmy Fallon last night and waxed poetic about the good old days of the '80s, when he could just cruise up to Washington Heights and buy crack from his car, "like a McDonald's." Wait, what!? more ›

Earlier this week, NBA superstar Kevin Durant delighted basketball fans by putting on a clinic at different streetball and summer league games at Rucker Park and Baruch College in the city. Durant showed up again last night to play at the Dyckman Tournament in Washington Heights, but he was upstaged this time by Minnesota Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley, who got into an argument with a heckling fan, palmed his head like a basketball, and shoved him aside. Watch the video below: more ›

Police revealed new information about the suspect in a Washington Heights sexual assault from last week. Police Captain Jose Navarro gave local residents a description of the suspect, saying he had multiple lip piercings, two nautical star tattoos on the backs of his calves, and was wearing a multi-colored beanie hat... or in other words, he was a hipster. "He had a particular look," Navarro said, describing the hat as "something a hipster would wear." Below, check out a video of the suspect getting stuck in the turnstiles: more ›

Despite the absence of any sweet sweet cheeba, parks officials destroyed a vegetable garden cultivated in Highbridge Park by Washington Heights senior citizens to prove a point: parks are meant for tweaking out and screaming at smokers, not experiencing a kinship with the earth through peaceful cultivation. "The basic principle is that what this person did is wrong. This is a public park, not private," Manhattan Parks Commissioner WIlliam Castro told DNAinfo. Although the Parks Department initially said the garden may have contaminated the soil, Castro said, "We're not really concerned about contamination so much…you just can't go into a public park and dig up a significant area, or any area, it's just not right." That'll teach those seniors to not neglect Highbridge park! more ›

The city's surveillance cameras have captured another despicable crime: a man was caught on tape attacking a 29-year-old woman in an elevator in Washington Heights. According to the Daily News—who describe the "goon" as a "Latino who shaves his balding head"—the violent effort was all to get a hold of the woman's cell phone. NY1 reports that the incident took place on June 9th. more ›

Three sexual assaults in as many days in northern Manhattan—one a block from the 34th Precinct station house—have residents of Washington Heights and Inwood alarmed. Investigators don't believe the three attacks were connected, and have released a police sketch and surveillance photos in the hunt for perpetrators in the first two incidents. The first took place in Inwood Hill Park around 10:40 p.m. Friday, when a shirtless Hispanic man in khaki shorts and a blue medallion around his neck struck up a brief conversation with his 28-year-old Hispanic victim. more ›

With Four Loko's danger past us, the NYPD is back to worrying about Nutcrackers. Last year the 34th Precinct in upper Manhattan declared war on the guys who peddle Nutcracker—a sweet homemade cocktail illegally sold to legal and underage drinkers—and this year they are planning on redoubling their efforts. "We want to get this off the street, especially when they are selling this garbage to little kids," Captain Jose Navarro of the 34th Precinct told DNAinfo. more ›

A NYPD captain was dragged six to eight feet by a motorcyclist when he tried to stop the motorcyclist from riding on the sidewalk on Wednesday evening. Captain Jose Navarro was leaving a community meeting when he saw 19-year-old Robert Casilla on his hog, going about 20 mph on West 182nd Street. according to the NY Post, "Navarro stepped in front of Casilla’s Yamaha motor cross bike and ordered him to stop. But Casilla kept going — so Navarro grabbed Casilla and the bike’s handlebars." more ›

On Friday night, 28 people were trapped inside an elevator at the 181st Street Station on the 1 line in Washington Heights. An MTA spokesman tells us there are no escalators, so the only way in or out is through one the station's four elevators. Well, around 8:35 p.m., 28 souls, including the MTA elevator operator, squeezed into one of the elevators. As this video posted on NYC the Blog shows, they didn't get out for quite some time. (Sadly, there were no rats to add to the drama.) Stay tuned for the 3:13 minute mark when—helllooo, do you come to this elevator often? more ›

Aspiring thieves, may we offer you a piece of advice? If you are going to grab 'n' dash on a subway platform please run into an elevator. Because those things get stuck all the time. And? They only have one set of doors! Which means you've essentially run right into a closet. Which is exactly what three young crooks discovered on Tuesday when they thought it would be fun to swipe an iPhone off of Andrew McConnell—who unfortunately for the tykes is both a transit worker and a former cop. more ›

After a spike in possibly gang-related violence, State Senator Adriano Espalliat is calling for police to step up their presence in Washington Heights, saying he did not want to see the "bad old days" return. He told CBS 2, “We are calling on the law enforcement community to come up with a multi-layered task force, similar to the ones that were created in the 80’s to combat drug sale when we had drug wars here in northern Manhattan." Ok, so they're not complaining over nothing. There were just four homicides in the area in 2010, but there have already been three killings this year. more ›

According to city data, Washington Heights residents have called 311 the most since the program started in 2005, complaining of things like heating, noise and construction. (And we're guessing dog poop.) Some complaints seem normal; mother Reina Martin has called 15 times to complain about lack of heat and water in her building. However, other complaints have the city's younsters coming off as incredibly unhip. Older residents say all the newcomers do is complain about people blasting salsa music and loud trucks rolling down the streets. Well yeah, they need to do their yoga in peace! more ›