Category Archives: Crime
By Jeremiah Dobruck Three people were stabbed in the intersection of 39th Road and 52nd Street next to the Lawrence Virgillio Playground around 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. A witness said a group of six to eight people was rowdily talking in the park when an argument broke out and escalated into a fight. Two males and one female were stabbed, police said. None was fatal. Witnesses said the female was stabbed in the stomach and looked like she was in her teens. … Continue reading
A man pulled up in his car and began masturbating while looking at a woman who was leaving her home in Maspeth on Valentine’s Day, police said. The 22-year-old victim told police that she was leaving her house near Grand Avenue and 58th Avenue to take a young child to day care. As she walked out at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, she noticed a four-door beige sedan stop on the street in front of her. The man inside … Continue reading
Shanna Spaulding, the woman who earned the nickname “Catwoman” after she robbed two Manhattan boutique stores donning a cat mask, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday, Feb.1. In December 2011, Spaulding, 29 and who was the lead singer in a death-metal band called Divine Infamy, was found guilty of three armed robberies that took place during the summer of 2010. She wore the cat mask during the two Manhattan robberies, one at a shoe store on Astor … Continue reading
A Queens man was arraigned on two charges on Thursday, Feb. 9, including driving under the influence of alcohol, which led to the death of an 89-year-old man while crossing a intersection in Astoria last week. Demitrios Matsoukatidis, 67, of 24-33 23rd Street in Astoria, was allegedly driving a black 1998 Mercedes SUV on 21st Avenue in Astoria when he hit Aldama Lizardo, who was crossing the street at the intersection of 21st Avenue and 31st Street on Feb. 7. … Continue reading
A Brooklyn teenager who almost killed a 12-year-old by stabbing him a dozen times in Highland Park was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison last week. Two years ago, police said then 15-year-old Wayne Henderson and his girlfriend stabbed Luis Martinez four times in the torso and back, two times in the chest and cut his jugular veins, leaving him in Highland Park along the Jackie Robinson Parkway. They also carved an X into his cheek before fleeing. … Continue reading
After a report that misdemeanor crime spiked in the precinct around the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack, politicians are calling for more cops, regardless of what may have caused the jump. The New York Post reported that in the two months after the racino opened in Ozone Park, petit larcenies and misdemeanor assaults jumped up compared to November and December of last year. There were 92 petit larcenies in November compared to 60 in November 2010, and there 41 … Continue reading
Four banks in a two-mile radius were hit by robberies in the last two weeks, including two neighboring banks held up back-to-back in Middle Village. In all four cases, a sole perpetrator matching one of two descriptions used a threatening note to extract money from a teller. It worked at all but one of the banks. Three of the banks are within blocks of each other along Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village. A fourth bank about a mile and a … Continue reading
The man who allegedly shot up a Q111 bus in Jamaica was indicted on Jan. 18 and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to a statement from the Queens District Attorney’s office. Damel Burton, 34-year-old, was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree attempted murder for a shooting spree that ended on a bus in Jamaica. He faces 25 years to life in jail. “This defendant’s alleged actions have forever … Continue reading
Inside her Woodhaven apartment, where she and her mother, Oneida, live, Ismelda Rosario, 24, remembered her late father, Carlos, as a hard working man with a few joys in life—his family, his Dominican Republic roots, and watching New York Yankees baseball. “He was a huge Yankees fan,” Ismelda recalled with a small smile; so much so, in fact, that Ismelda had given the Dominican Republic-born man and owner of Bushwick Tire Shop tickets to a Yankees game as a present … Continue reading
A 41-year-old Flushing man will spend two decades in prison after he was sentenced on Friday, Jan. 20 for a 2009 sexual attack on a 19-year-old girl. John Dixon, who lived on Parsons Boulevard in Flushing, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of first-degree rape, second-degree assault and first degree sexual abuse in April 2011. According to testimony, Dixon lured the girl into his car offering her a ride to work on the … Continue reading
While speeding from one bank robbery to a second just blocks away, a police car hit a man crossing Metropolitan Avenue Thursday afternoon, leaving blood on the pavement and sending the victim to the hospital. Witnesses said the car was driven by a 104th Precinct lieutenant who was tearing down the road between 78th Street and 79th street without lights or a siren. Cars were stopped in the eastbound lane, and when the lieutenant swerved into the oncoming lane to avoid traffic, the … Continue reading
Howard Beach resident Eddie Taibi says he has not rested in the last thirty-eight months. After his release from prison was denied by an upstate New York parole board, it seems that rest will continue to elude him for many more months. In November 2008, while on a hunting trip, Taibi fired his rifle at a deer and instead struck, 16-month-old Charly Skala, who was in the kitchen of her family’s trailer. The toddler died as a result of the … Continue reading
An enormous drug trafficking operation that had been funneling massive amounts of heroin through Queens was shut down when 121 individuals were arrested on drug possession charges. The Queens District Attorney and the NYPD arrested the purported criminals, most of whom reside in Suffolk and Nassau Counties, for allegedly commuting into New York City to buy heroin and other drugs from a New York City drug ring. The ring’s alleged leader has been identified as Jermel Broadhurst, 30, of 31-31 … Continue reading
After allegedly stabbing his wife in the neck and chest early Sunday morning in her Richmond Hill home, Oscar Novakovsky was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, an NYPD spokesperson said. At 12:42 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 15, police received a call for a domestic assault at 101-41 117th Street in Richmond Hill. They found 32-year-old Diane Sharma with multiple stab wounds, police said. She was pronounced dead on scene. Sharma lived in the house on 117th Street with her … Continue reading
Three members of a Richmond Hill family were collectively sentenced to up to 418 years in prison on Jan. 11 for their roles in a scam that defrauded dozens of immigrants of $1.8 million. In November, members of the Ramsundar family—all of 101-35A 120th Street in South Richmond Hill—were convicted of second-and third-degree grand larceny, first- and second-degree money laundering, first-degree criminal impersonation and first degree scheme to defraud following a nearly three month jury trial in Queens Criminal Court. … Continue reading