Slammed through window
An Orchard St. shoplifting foray turned violent on Tuesday evening June 14 when the suspects threw one of the owners through the front window and knocked his partner unconscious, police said. Two men, Dennis Brunson, 20, and Travis Sims, 29, and a woman, Enjolie Evans, 23, were arrested and charged with robbery, causing physical injury and possession of stolen property.
The trio entered Pilgrim Vintage Clothing, 70 Orchard St., around 6 p.m. When the woman tried to steal a high-priced handbag, one of the owners challenged her. The two male suspects jumped in, knocked one owner to the floor, pushed the other through the window and all three suspects fled. Police said a fourth suspect not apprehended might have been involved.
Charlton St. muggers
Police arrested one of four suspects charged with mugging a woman as she was walking on the north side of Charlton St. between Sixth Ave. and Varick St. on Saturday evening June 11. The suspects punched the victim, 32, in the head around 7:15 p.m., grabbed her cell phone and fled. Police arrested Dinastee Parker, 20, who was identified by the victim. His accomplices were not apprehended.
Washington Sq. ruckus
Sixth Precinct police arrested an unemployed man who slashed a Park Enforcement Patrol officer with a broken bottle in the Washington Square Park playground around 1 p.m. Thurs., June 6. The PEP officer, who was not seriously injured, was breaking up a fight between the suspect, Charles Graham, 51, and other itinerants in the park, according to Deputy Inspector Brandon del Pozo, Sixth Precinct commanding officer.
Graham has a record of 51 arrests, including 36 in the Sixth Precinct, according to police. Del Pozo described the other individuals involved in the incident as “travelers,” homeless individuals who crisscross the U.S., often by hopping freight trains. He said these travelers had recently been displaced from Union Square due to increased enforcement efforts there, and made their way down to Washington Square.
“It’s a serious incident for Washington Square,” del Pozo said. “But the average members of the parkgoing public have little to fear from the incident. This was a dispute between a transient and another group of transients.”
Porn-ring busts
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. announced Tuesday the arrest last week of 26 defendants in Manhattan who traded child pornography on the Internet.
Vance said he was “shocked and disgusted” by the images and videos that were seized in a series of raids.
One defendant, Steven Roman, was arrested Mon., June 6, in a 6 a.m. raid on his Baruch Houses apartment. Police found nude pictures and videos of children on the suspect’s computer, police said. The suspect, 30, who works as a children’s shoe salesman, also had a bag of marijuana in his Baruch Drive apartment, police said. He was charged with promoting sexual performance of a child and possession of a controlled substance.
The arrests came after a five-month investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s cybercrime and identity theft bureau, along with U.S. Homeland Security Investigation’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Child Exploitation Group. The investigation is continuing, Vance said.
Hotel harassment
Police arrested Peter Lopez, 26, a former security guard at the Gansevoort Hotel, 22 Ninth Ave., on June 10 and charged him with an April 10 harassment incident. Police said Lopez had stopped a fellow employee leaving the hotel with two friends and asked, “Do you know those two are gay?” Told to move along, Lopez replied, “You’re a faggot and I’m not moving,” then followed the three individuals and hit one of them in the face. Three other hotel employees approached and told the group that Lopez was a security guard at the hotel. “He gets like that. His name is Pete,” they said as they took Lopez away from the scene.
Cops assaulted
Two Sixth Precinct plainclothes anticrime officers breaking up an assault on a victim at 13th St. and Ninth Ave around 3:36 a.m. Sat., June 11, were themselves assaulted.
The officers showed their badges, repeated, “Police. Stop,” but the suspects turned on them, put a chokehold on one officer and hit the other with a plastic barrier. The suspects, Andrien Vergna and Thomas Poitrenaud, both 22, were finally subdued but continued to struggle to avoid being handcuffed, police said.
Bad card for tat
Kevahn Thorpe, 20, was arrested Sun., June 12, for identity theft and larceny for trying to pay for a tattoo at Whatever Tattoo, 339 Sixth Ave., with a stolen credit card, police said.
Meatpacking fatal
Danny Colvin, 51, a prominent local architect, fell to his death from a second-story window into the rear yard of his home at 345 W. 13th St. at Hudson St. at 10:20 a.m. Thurs., June 9, police said. The fall is believed to have been an accident. Police said no criminality was suspected and there was no suicide note.
Gramercy beating
Police are investigating a report that several men brutally beat a 27-year-old man on E. 22nd St. near Park Ave. South around 4:15 a.m. Sat., June 11. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition with severe head injuries. The suspects were angry about a conversation the victim had with a woman in a nearby club, according to reports.
Up-skirt iPhone suspect
Police arrested Roberto Gonzalez, 56, on Thursday morning June 2 in the Union Square subway station and charged him with using his iPhone camera to take pictures up a woman’s skirt. Gonzalez tried to delete pictures as police arrested him and he was charged with tampering with physical evidence.
L.E.S. ’98 rape arrest
Police arrested Lerio Guerrero, 32, of Staten Island, on Fri., June 10, and charged him with the Nov. 8, 1998, rape of a woman in her building at Orchard and Rivington Sts.
The arrest was made despite the statute of limitations running out on the 13-year-old crime because a grand jury in 2005 had indicted a “John Doe” under a DNA profile for the 1998 rape. The DNA had been taken from a rape kit obtained at the time of the crime and from the suspect’s blood, which stained the victim’s coat after he cut himself on broken glass.
Guerrero was arrested last month in Brooklyn near the scene of a sex assault. A sample of his DNA was taken from a discarded cigarette at that crime scene. The DNA matched the “John Doe” DNA in the 2005 indictment, according to the office of the Manhattan district attorney.
Missing person
Stanley Thompson, 52, missing from his home at 640 Water St. in the Vladeck Houses, was last seen leaving the mental health clinic at 344 W. 36th St. around noon Thurs., June 9. He is described as a black man, 5 feet 5 inches tall, about 155 pounds and wearing a white shirt and black jeans. Anyone with information should phone 800-577-TIPS (8477) or report it online at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com .
Chain-fist attack
Police arrested Joel Griffith, 27, shortly after 11 p.m. Sat., June 4, and charged him with felony assault for beating a man, 45, whom he had accosted walking on Prince St. near Greene St. Griffin, with a chain wrapped around his fist, attacked the victim without provocation, police said.
Wallet stolen
A Brooklyn woman shopping at Victoria’s Secret, 565 Broadway at Prince St., discovered her wallet was gone at 5:30 p.m. The victim learned later that an attempt to use one of her credit cards at the same store failed when the place declined to accept the card.
Forgot her bag
A woman, 31, visiting from the Cayman Islands forgot to pick up her bag from the counter at Lady Foot Locker, 523 Broadway at Spring St., after shopping there around 6 p.m. Sun., June 12. She returned a short time later but the bag was gone. She learned later that an unauthorized charge of $600 had been made on one of her credit cards at a store across the street.
Albert Amateau
