Gang assaults
A group of at least five young men who got on a southbound No. 4 train at Grand Central station around 11:30p.m. Sat., Dec. 17, harassed fellow passenger, slashed his face and fled at the Bowling Green Station. Police found a bloody knife on the tracks and bloodstained tissue paper. An Emergency Medical Service team treated the victim at the scene and took him to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
A man walking with his girlfriend on Church St. at Walker St. around 1:30a.m. Sun., Dec.18 was struck in the head from behind, knocked to the pavement and then kicked repeatedly by a group of six or seven young men, police said. The victim was taken to Bellevue hospital with fractures of an eye socket, his cheek and a broken nose.
Bank robbery
A man waited on a queue at the Emigrant Savings branch at 110 Church St. around noon on Fri., Dec.16 and asked the teller when his turn came if he could change a $5 bill for singles even though he wasn’t a depositor. She was about to change the bill when he gave her a note demanding 100s and 50s with “no wrapped bills or I shoot everyone.” When the teller went for an alarm button, the robber said, ”Don’t do that.” She surrendered $5,000and he fled after taking the note back.
Shoplifters
A group of six teenagers walked together into the American Apparel store at 140 Broadway near Thomas St. around 7:20p.m. Fri., Dec. 16, dispersed to look around and then regrouped to walk out. Two of the teens were carrying “booster bags” lined with metal foil to avoid detection devices. But since they were not seen taking any items, they were not arrested.
A man dressed in black managed to walkout of Abercrombie & Fitch, 199 Water St., around 5:20 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 15 without paying for 20 bottles of Fierce Cologne with a total value of $1.480.
Two men entered Folli Follie at 133 Prince St. around 7:30 p.m. Fri., Dec. 16 and asked to see watches. One of the suspects grabbed five watches from the case, while the other grappled with the attendant. They fled with the watches with a total value of $1,900.
Nab larceny suspect
A Queens woman shopping at Century 21 at 179 Broadway around 4:15 p.m. on Dec. 18 realized her bag was open and her wallet was gone. She soon discovered one of her credit cards was being used at 17 Park Row where clerks had seen the woman who used the card departing in a white Chevy Impala. The driver, Namala Conteh, 29, was arrested and charged with larceny.
Baruch Houses assault
Lillian Rios, 50, her daughter, Cheryl Rios, 31 and Alyssa Cruz, 16, all residents of the Baruch Houses, were arrested and charged with assault around 3:23 p.m. Mon., Dec. 12 after a traffic agent told police the suspects punched and kicked her.
Ludlow St. thief
Jimmy Perez, 49, pleaded guilty on Mon. Dec. 12 to stealing a laptop, a jacket, a cellphone and electronic equipment from a patron of Ludlow Bar, 165 Ludlow St. around 3 a.m. on Fri. Dec. 2. He was arrested when he returned to the bar on Tues. Dec. 6 when the manager recognized him and called police. Perez was sentenced to nine months in jail.
Arrest in 3 muggings
Wilberto Navarro, 44, was arrested Mon., Dec. 12 and charged with mugging three women on the Lower East Side and the East Village, including a 73-year-old victim in a motorized scooter.
He is charged with choking a woman from behind in a hallway of 57 Pitt St., threatening to kill her and stealing her wallet around 1:30a.m. Fri., Dec.9.
On Dec. 10 he attacked a woman, 73, in her motorized scooter as she entered the elevator of her Baruch Houses building at 595 F.D.R. Dr., around 5:10p.m. according to the complaint filed with the Manhattan District Attorney. The suspect slammed her head against the scooter handlebar and fled with her bag, the complaint says.
The next day at about 2:30 a.m. he followed a woman into an apartment building at 520 E. 12th St., told her ”I want your money and I don’t want to hurt you,” and fled with he money and her iPhone, according to the complaint.
Navarro was being held in lieu of $255.000bail pending a Jan. 10 court appearance.
Car theft
A man who parked his 2006 Hundai at the southwest corner of Varick and Houston Sts, at 9 p.m. Thurs., Dec. 15 returned at 2 a.m. to find it had been stolen.
‘Reclaim your humanity’
The security guards at 75 Varick St. at Canal St. called police at 4:45 p.m. Sat. to say that two people had entered the locked high-rise loft building and hung a 100-ft.-long white banner with “Reclaim Your Humanity” in black letters from the 17th floor of the building. Police arrested Moses Appleton, 24, and Suzahn Ehrahimian, 23, as they came out of the elevator on the first floor. The suspects said they worked in the building but were not specific, police said. Their hands were also stained with black paint. They were charged with burglary.
Stuyvesant senior killed
Terrance Tsao, 17, a Stuyvesant High School Senior, was killed on Fri., Dec. 16 around 9:40p.m. when a car jumped the curb and hit him at Cropsey Ave., Bay 37th St. in Gravesend near his Brooklyn home. The driver, Vitali Korzavin, 46, was charged with driving while intoxicated and vehicular homicide. Tsao was an honor student and worked as a docent in the Aquarium in Coney Island.
— Albert Amateau
