Two attempted robberies resulted in injuries to victims in Brooklyn Thursday afternoon, police officials said.
This comes as gun violence continues to drop, with only one person shot in Brooklyn in the last 24 hours.
The man who was shot occurred at 5:34 p.m. Thursday when a 46-year-old man was approached by two unknown Black men, one armed with a gun in front of 106 Euclid Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. Police from the 75th Precinct say the young men demanded property, but the victim refused. He was then shot in the foot and the two thieves fled.
The victim was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he was reported in stable condition.
The other robbery occurred not far from the shooting at 2:30 p.m. where a man and a woman demanded money from a store clerk at a bodega at 5 Bradford Street off Jamaica Avenue in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Police from the 75th Precinct say that when the deli worker refused to surrender money, one of the two people stabbed him in the neck and fled on foot.
The victim was rushed to Brookdale Hospital in serious but stable condition. Police were looking at security video for clues as to the identity of the assailants.
Anyone with information on either of these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
Commissioner says job not done
With shootings, murders and assaults significantly higher than the previous year, Commissioner Dermot Shea defended the NYPD on Fox Business Report Friday morning, saying there were a number of factors making their job more difficult.
Shea said that with academy classes postponed and a high-level attrition of 149.4 percent in August and 52 percent in July alone, the department is now down 2100 members from last year. He said that coupled with a 60 percent decrease in overtime and significant defunding of the department, it has made their job more difficult – “affecting neighborhoods of color the most.”
“Last year we had the lowest shooting and homicides and then to have this crazy time happen this year leading to defunding, really hurt and it hurt people in high crime areas, hurting people of color the most,” Shea said. This defunding movement comes when crime takes an upward trajectory, increased attrition and growing – our head count down 2100, significant challenges on overtime, this will have impact.”
Shea said they have now the “lowest incarceration rate,” and while he has been a critic of criminal justice reform and cashless bail, he said, “we can’t keep arresting the same people over and over – it’s not a way to run a business.”
When asked specifically about the cashless bail and reducing jail populations, he said, “when you remove the politics of it, and I don’t like to get into the bail issue – these laws were crafted with an agenda by advocates, with the ultimate agenda to decarcerate and you can argue that it’s worthwhile – if done properly. When you cut the jail population by 40-50 percent without a network of support, that is what we must wrap our arms around.”
Shea added, “the focus should be getting our arms around this and while we are beginning to trend down (in crime), it is far from any stretch that this is a success – there’s a lot of work to do and working with federal partners, we want to send a clear message gang members drug dealers that hey will face the harshest prosecution.”
Arrest in domestic violence death
A 50-year-old Queens man was nabbed in connection with the stabbing death of his wife in their Rockaway apartment early Thursday morning, police officials announced.
Police in Brooklyn arrested Manuel Villar, 50 of Beach 58th Street for the stabbing murder of his wife Ivette Villar, 43, of the same address later that same morning driving in East New York, Brooklyn in his red sedan.
Police from the 101st Precinct found his wife in the bedroom of their home early Thursday morning with multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. A city-wide notification was sent out on the vehicle and police later found Villar driving in Brooklyn.
Villar will be charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. The motive for the stabbing was not immediately known and it was not clear if anyone else was home at the time of the assault.
