Criminals and Guns found at Creedmoor asylum seeker tents

Queens Chronicle 

A press conference was held in Queens Village last Friday in the wake of two Cuban migrant brothers wanted for attempted murder in Orlando, Fla., allegedly being discovered with a gun inside the tent city on the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center complex.

Councilwoman Linda Lee (D-Oakland Gardens), who held the event, in conjunction with other area officials, was stunned to learn about the fugitives from the New York Post, which first reported the incident.

“It happened three days ago,” Lee told the Chronicle on Oct. 4. “The most alarming part of this is that I found out today ... We didn’t get any phone calls from anyone at [City Hall].”

Lee said she was at the complex just a few weeks ago discussing how to improve conditions at the tent city.

“Quality of life issues need to be addressed,” Lee said. “Whether it is the garbage, the lack of buses or the parks not being open.”

The councilwoman said residents have been patient and understanding when it comes to what is happening with the migrant crisis, but to have a tent city with more than 1,200 asylum seekers smacked down in the middle of a residential neighborhood, unlike the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers on Randall’s Island in Manhattan and Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, is problematic.

“Those two other tent city HERRC sites are in isolated areas,” said Lee. “This one is ... across the street from a school, the park and everything.”

Lee said when she did a site tour of the facility when it first opened up, she was told there was an intake process and background checks being conducted.

“My question is, where did the system fall apart?” she said. “Maybe we need to do a better intake and reevaluate the system to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Lee said the situation is very dangerous not only to the residents, but the migrants too.

“If a fight broke out, if there is an incident that happens, that puts the other migrants at risk as well,” she said. “We want this site to be closed, but in the meantime, what we are demanding are metal detectors installed ... We are going to push the city for this.”

Mayor Adams’ office said it does not do criminal background checks on everyone who comes through the system, but all its migrant facilities have 24/7 security to keep every individual under its care — and New Yorkers at large — safe. Adams’ office also said that anyone who violates the code of conduct or threatens the safety of other shelter residents and staff may be subject to loss of shelter.

The Mayor’s Office did not say whether it will consider having metal detectors in HERRC facilities in the future after the alleged incident, but did say that it inspects all bags and packages, including food delivery bags.

When asked what the vetting and flagging process entailed, the Mayor’s Office did not further elaborate before press time. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that it will look into the Chronicle’s inquiry and will respond at a later time.

Daniel Sparrow, a spokesman for Lee, told the Chronicle that she was under the impression the vetting or flagging process included criminal background checks.

Sparrow said, during initial the tour her office was assured that between the CBP and Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, where migrants share their information again for intake in the city, asylum seekers would be vetted, screened (for communicable diseases such as Covid-19), and flagged if anything alarming came up.

“Since these individuals were previously in Florida, there was evidently a lapse in the intake process that allowed individuals with outstanding warrants to be placed there,” he said.

Jaroscar Chavez Silva, 36, was charged with one felony count of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, according to the city Department of Correction.

According to a criminal complaint from the Queens District Attorney’s Office, a black G2S Taurus pistol loaded with one 9mm bullet and one magazine containing six 9mm rounds of ammunition was found in a duffle bag underneath the bed of the defendant. The complaint said a warrant was issued for Chavez Silva’s arrest on Sept. 16.

Rosheil Chavez Silva, 30, his brother, was extradited back to Florida after police at the 105th Precinct questioned both, reported the Post.

Bob Friedrich, president of Glen Oaks Village, a co-op with 10,000 residents adjacent to the migrant facility, said he does not believe the people at the site are being vetted.

“We have minimum-wage guards entrusted with securing our security inside the shelter,” Friedrich said. “Twenty-four-seven NYPD presence has been eliminated. The sidewalks outside have been strewn with litter and scores of migrants hang out and block the sidewalks. Our beloved elderly residents and young moms with children no longer can congregate at the park across from the migrant shelter because they have been pushed out and feel unsafe.”

Rich Hellenbrecht, the secretary and treasurer of the Bellerose Commonwealth Civic Association, told the Chronicle he was outraged, but the Borough President’s Office told him it would look into the matter.

“These are the guys that got caught,” Hellenbrecht said. “How many people are walking around with knives in their pocket or guns?”

 

El Queens Center Mariachi

1010 WINS 

 Five people were charged on a 625-count indictment in connection to a gun trafficking operation that sold dozens of ghost guns, assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in Queens, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Wednesday.

The suspects charged in the operation allegedly transported 3D-printed ghost guns assembled in Nassau County and serialized firearms purchased in Indiana into Queens, where they were stored and sold, according to the Office of the Attorney General.

An investigation by the OAG’s Organized Crime Task Force in cooperation with Homeland Security Investigations and the NYPD recovered 86 firearms – including 55 ghost guns and 25 assault weapons – along with over 90 high-capacity magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Investigators began tracking Satveer Saini, 20, and his associates, Mateo Castro-Agudelo, 21, Hargeny Fernandez-Gonzalez, 20, Adam Youssef Senhaji-Rivas, 20, and Milanjit Sidhu, 20, in late 2023, according to the OAG.

During the investigation, Saini, Fernandez-Gonzalez, and Senhaji-Rivas allegedly paid over $27,000 to purchase firearms from Indiana, which has less restrictive gun laws than New York.

Early in the investigation, Saini and Castro-Agudelo drove from Indianapolis to Queens with weapons purchased in Indiana when they were stopped for speeding by the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Medina County, Ohio. During the stop, police recovered nine unloaded serialized handguns from inside Saini’s rental car.

From this point on, Fernandez-Gonzalez allegedly began paying Sidhu to drive weapons from Indianapolis to Queens.

Fernandez-Gonzalez also allegedly bought 3D-printed ghost guns in Nassau County and brought them to Queens.  Saini, Castro-Agudelo, and Senhaji-Rivas all allegedly sold trafficked firearms, high-capacity magazines, and ammunition during the course of the investigation.

Assassination in Little Guyana

Photo by JQ LLC

CBS New York

Police are investigating a shooting in Queens that left a woman dead and a man hospitalized. 

CBS New York's John Dias spoke with people who heard the commotion, and obtained exclusive video of the shooting. 

The video shows the intense moments before a deadly shooting in Richmond Hill just before midnight Wednesday morning. 

It shows two people wearing hoods that conceal their faces as they casually walk across Liberty Avenue by 127th Street while a third paces along on the sidewalk. 

The three then quickly whip out guns, and start shooting into a parked car. 

One man said he heard about 20 shots. He told Dias the overwhelming number of shots he head had him thinking someone was using a military rifle. 

"Like, semi-automatic," he said. "It goes bang bang, then bang bang bang." 

Police said 28-year-old Clarisa Burgos of Brooklyn was fatally shot in the head. A 39-year-old man driving the car was shot multiple times in his chest and torso. 

The video shows him driving frantically away from the scene right after. Police said he drove two miles to the 103rd police precinct in Jamaica to get help. He was then rushed to the hospital. We're told he is expected to survive. 

"That's crazy to hear," one man who just moved down the street last year said. "That's not right. It makes me sad... That's not nice. Not happy at all." 

Police are still trying to work out a motive. 

So far, no arrests have been made.

The Guns Of Astoria

QNS  

 A seven-month investigation into an interstate gun trafficking ring spanning from Cincinnati to an Astoria parking lot resulted in the seizure of over 100 guns and the indictment of three individuals. 

Over the course of five meetups with an undercover police officer at the P.C. Richard & Son parking lot on Steinway Street in Astoria this summer, the defendants sold a total of 97 firearms, including 17 assault weapons. The purchases by the plainclothes cop totaled $124,000 at approximately $1,200 per gun. 

“Guns and the recovery of weapons on the streets of Queens are a priority for this office and the NYPD,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz at a Nov. 6 press conference, where the firearms were on display. “We are fighting the gun plague with all our might and resources, on the streets and in the courts.

 Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz thanked the undercover officer who secured the majority of the guns during meetups with the defendants.Photo courtesy of Queens DA Office 

The three defendants, who are cousins – Ahmed “Taju” Mutalib, Abdul Haruna and Murtala Haruna – were indicted on 575 counts by a grand jury. Their charges include criminal sale of a firearm in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon, conspiracy and money laundering. 

 The NYPD and the DA’s office received a confidential tip informing them of the gun trafficking ring in March 2023. After gathering intelligence and completing an initial investigation, they appointed an undercover police officer to begin acquiring the firearms.

Holdup at Tiffany's

NY Post

Two brazen thieves on motorcycles robbed a group of people dining outside a fashionable Queens cafe — which is located across the street from the office of Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, a major supporter of defunding the NYPD, cops and witnesses said. 

The masked men dressed in all black rode up on the sidewalk and pointed guns at customers who had been relaxing outside the Under Pressure Espresso Bar on 31st Street in Astoria around 3 p.m. Tuesday, police and witnesses said.

“Hands up, don’t move,” they barked at the victims — and said that if they did move, they’d “shoot,” two employees who witnessed the incident told The Post. 

“Two people came on motorcycles and they pointed their gun outside and took some chains and bracelets from some people outside,” said one of the workers, who declined to share their name.

Another worker said about a dozen people were outside the coffee shop when the robbery happened and called the incident “f–ked up.” 

No one was injured, but the crooks took bracelets and chains from an unknown number of people. They fled north on 31st Street and were still at large Thursday.

The gunplay on Caban’s doorstep comes after she published a letter in February criticizing the NYPD for sending an anti-gun unit to the 114th Precinct, which covers the area.

“Our district is already home to some of the highest stop-and-frisk rates in the city,” she wrote. “Now we will also have to contend with the unit that, despite containing roughly 5% of the force, committed nearly 1/3 of all police murders in the 20 years before it was [previously] disbanded.”

When the first employee was told about Cabán’s calls to defund and disband the NYPD, he broke into laughter and called her a “clown.” 

“I should go talk to her,” he said. 

“Is she serious? She‘s going to defund the police? Ha! She got no good reason, bro.”

He called on police to “find” the men responsible for the robbery and “prevent this from happening” again. 

The coffee shop, where an order of cold brew costs $4.50, is about 140 feet away from Cabán’s office, where staffers refused to speak to The Post about the incident. 

“She is not here right now. She’s currently in a meeting,” a worker said when a reporter asked to speak to Cabán about the incident.

NYPD expected trouble at house party, then it came

 

 

AMNY

A gang of men unleashed a hail of bullets, shooting into a residential Queens party late Friday night, which prompted detectives to return fire and injure three men, police said.

Members of the NYPD Violent Crime Squad were parked outside 219th Street and 130th Avenue in Laurelton observing a party which they believed had gang connections. The detectives sat in an unmarked car wearing plain clothes, according to Chief of Patrol Jeffery Maddrey when, at 11:35 p.m. on Aug. 5, a group of men arrived and began firing into the event.

“Now, understand there was about 75 to 100 people at this party and now you have a group of males firing into this group,” Chief Maddrey said during an early morning press conference on Aug. 6. “The detectives saw this, they realized danger was imminent.”

It was reported that the Violent Crime Squad rushed from their vehicle and attempted to stop the mayhem by immediately shooting at the men. After a brief firefight, police brought down three of the men with an array of bullet wounds. All three men were hurried to a local hospital, two of whom are expected to survive. A third man, however, is currently in critical condition.

The detectives were also removed to a medical facility for treatment of severe tinnitus, police said.

Early in the investigation, it wasn’t yet known if any of the revelers were also struck. Well after sunrise Saturday, Crime Scene Unit detectives were still canvassing the area for evidence, marking as many as 39 shell casings left in the exchange of bullets.

 

Hangry Assassin gets sprung on bail and his wife got busted for gun possession on the same day

 

 Queens Post

A Briarwood man who allegedly gunned down a food delivery worker in Forest Hills in late April has been released on bail.

Glenn Hirsch, 51, appeared in court in Kew Gardens Monday and a judge set bail at $500,000. He has been charged for the shooting death of Zhiwen Yan, 45, and will now remain free while awaiting trial.

Hirsch’s attorney Michael Horn argues that his client is innocent and that the police have nabbed the wrong person.

Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder set strict guidelines as a condition of Hirsch’s release, which includes monitoring by an ankle bracelet and limitations as to where he can go outside of his apartment.

Hirsch is accused of fatally shooting Yan at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 30. Yan was shot in the chest while on his scooter making deliveries for the Great Wall Chinese restaurant located at 104-37 Queens Blvd.

Fox News 

Dorothy Hirsch, the 62-year-old wife of the man accused of gunning down a New York City Chinese food deliveryman amid an ongoing dispute with the restaurant over duck sauce, was arrested on Monday after police found eight guns and more than 200 rounds of ammunition hidden in her Queens apartment, according to a report. 

Police arrested the woman and charged her with gun possession after NYPD conducted a search warrant at her 84th Road apartment where she maintains a separate residence from her husband, New York Daily News reported. Her bail was initially set for $150,000. 

Records show NYPD recovered a loaded 9mm semi-automatic with a clip containing nine rounds and a .38 caliber revolver containing 10 rounds from a box in a back closet. 

Authorities discovered a second 9mm and a .45 caliber revolver in a bag in the same closet, according to police, while a .38 caliber revolver, a .357 caliber revolver, a 9mm pistol, and a .25 caliber pistol were located in a black zippered pouch, which also contained the rest of the recovered ammunition. 

Dorothy Hirsch’s lawyer, Mark Bederow, said that the woman — a registered nurse with no prior arrests — is "adamant" about her innocence and has refused to be used "as a pawn" in the case regarding her husband.

 

Guns n' students

CBS News 

 There was a shocking discovery after metal detectors were sent to a Queens high school one day after a brazen daylight shooting that left three teenagers injured.

Now, Mayor Eric Adams is taking action, ordering his precinct commanders and top NYPD brass to attend an unusual weekend meeting, CBS2's Marcia Kramer reported Thursday.

One top NYPD official described the meeting at police headquarters this Saturday as a "beat down." The mayor's spokesman told Kramer only that his boss regards himself as a general who intends to lead from the front.

But for many of us, the number of weapons found at Francis Lewis High School on Thursday was astounding.

"The weapons count went to over 20 and they're still counting. I know they have a stun gun and pepper spray from one student, have a lot of knives," Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd said.

Students at Francis Lewis High in Fresh Meadows had to wait on long lines and take directions from school safety agents on Thursday, following the stunning daylight shooting that left three students wounded, including a 14-year-old Asian girl who was shot in the neck, has a bullet lodged in her spine, and still hasn't regained consciousness.

Police sources said a group of students, many from Francis Lewis High, were walking home on 188th Street. The occupant of a silver sedan began shouting at the kids, police say, and then a man got out of the car and opened fire.

"It's not happening in the middle of the night. It's happening in the afternoon, on a busy street, in a busy area where kids congregate after school," Fresh Meadows parent George Douveas said.

The mayor was outraged both about the shooting and the cache of weapons found at the school.

"There should be no doubt that keeping New York City safe is my top priority," he told CBS2, adding, "It is unacceptable for prohibited items to be taken to school."

Queens Chronicle

Three teens were shot walking on 188th Street near 64th Avenue at approximately 4:10 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

The three victims — a 14-year-old girl and two 18-year-old boys — were walking in a group of 10 to 12 other teenagers, Deputy Inspector Kevin Chan of the 107th Precinct estimated, when the shooter, who had been double parked on the block, approached the group. An argument ensued, and shots were fired at the teens. The 14-year-old was shot in the neck, one of the 18-year-olds in the right hip and the other in the right calf, Chan said.

According to the NYPD press office, the girl is stable but critical and the two boys are stable. Chan, the precinct’s commander, said all are expected to survive.

Wednesday’s incident comes amid a recent uptick in crime in northeastern Queens — generally among the safer parts of the borough. In late March, northeast Queens saw two shooting incidents within the span of a week: one outside a party at a foreclosed house in Bayside, which squatters had been renting out on Airbnb, the other near Cardozo High School, and just days later. The latter involved at least three Cardozo students. On April 16, a woman was robbed and assaulted in the parking lot of the Oakland Gardens Key Food. The shooting Wednesday is the second the 107th Precinct has had this year; it had five all of last year. 

At this time, little is known about the perpetrator. Chan said that his age is not known and that he fled the scene in a gray BMW; the motive is unknown. It is also unclear whether the teens who were shot are the same ones who argued with the shooter, nor  if the group were all walking together, or if they just happened to be in the same place at the same time.

“It’s still early,” Chan said. “We’re trying to do our interviews, trying to, obviously, interview everyone that was there.”

Both Chan and Assemblymember Nily Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows), however, were able to confirm that two of the victims — the 14-year-old and one of the 18-year-olds — attend Francis Lewis High School, a 12-minute walk from the scene.

Thursday afternoon, two school safety vehicles were parked outside the main entrance on Utopia Parkway, and students could be seen lined up outside the school; Rozic said that was because their bags were being searched as they entered the building.

Rozic, Councilmember Linda Lee (D-Oakland Gardens) and Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Hillcrest) issued a joint statement on the incident late Wednesday evening. In addition to wishing the victims a speedy recovery and thanking the first responders on the scene, the group emphasized the need to take on gun violence. 

“Given recent events including shootings and assaults in neighboring communities, we understand the growing concerns about public safety in Northeast Queens and are calling for a renewed commitment from all levels of government to tackle the rising gun violence across New York City,” the statement reads.

Bike violence in Woodhaven

 

NY Daily News 

A brazen bicyclist whipped out a pair of guns and shot up a Queens red-light camera, damaging it in a barrage of 16 bullets, police said Wednesday.

The bizarre incident comes less than two months after an e-bike rider was caught on video shooting up a speed trap camera 2 miles away.

In the new incident, the bicyclist fired 14 times with a 9-mm. gun and let off two rounds from a .380 at Woodhaven Blvd. and Atlantic Ave. in Woodhaven about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, cops said. The shots knocked the camera out of service.

The shooter rode off south on Woodhaven Blvd.

About 3:15 a.m. Jan. 7, an e-bike rider fired more than a half-dozen bullets during a major snowstorm at a speed camera at 86th St. and 158th Ave. in Howard Beach, cops said.

The camera was hit at least eight times but kept recording.

On Jan. 13, cops released footage from the device showing the shooter rolling up and opening fire and asked the public’s help identifying the shooter and tracking him down. He has still not been caught.

Investigators have not yet determined if the two incidents are connected, a police source said.

Gun shots go off inside of notorious noisy hookah lounge

 

Freedom News 

 Two men were shot and one suspect was taken into custody following a dispute in front of Kloud Tequila Grill and Hookah Lounge on 192-08 Northern Boulevard, in Flushing Queens.

 According to police, a 29-year-old man was shot twice in the leg twice and another male, in his mid 30s, was grazed by a bullet to the back of his head.

Both gunshot victims went to New York Presbyterian Queens hospital with non life threatening injuries.

 The cause of the altercation is unknown at this time. Responding officers recovered a firearm at the scene and took a 19 year old male into custody.

Numerous complaints over the year have not been successful in closing Kloud. After the shooting, a petition was established to have the Queens business be shut down.

High noon

 

NY Post 

Brazen gunslingers are shooting the daylights out of the Big Apple.

After a shocking execution in Park Slope and last Saturday afternoon’s shooting spree in Times Square, The Post requested crime data to see if the impression that criminals have become bolder in broad daylight is true.

Sadly, it appears so.

As of April 25, the NYPD recorded 374 shootings this year — and 119, or 32 percent, occurred between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. During the same period last year there were 213 shootings — with 63, or 30 percent, happening in daylight.

The 2-percent uptick in the percentage of daylight-to-overall shootings was not as worrisome to the cops’ union as the surging frequency of daytime gunplay: the increase from 63 shootings last year to 119 this year represents an 89-percent explosion.

“The increase in brazen, broad-daylight shootings just confirms what we already knew: violent criminals have no fear anymore,” Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch told The Post.

“They know that the police are underfunded, understaffed and hobbled by pro-criminal politicians and a broken justice system,” he added. “They know that if we arrest them in the morning, they’ll be back out in time for dinner. If New Yorkers don’t want a city where criminals control both the night and the day, they need to push elected officials to act

 

Shootings in Queens since the ball drop

East Elmhurst

Long Island City

Kew Gardens

New Year's Eve honorable mention in Jamaica

Shootings and guns on the streets rise again

 

QNS

 The NYPD’s crime statistics for October revealed a predicted increase in shooting incidents and gun crimes as compared to 2019, while homicide rates showed a slight decrease.

Citywide shooting incidents saw a 121 percent increase, with 137 citywide shootings this year compared to last year’s 62. On a year-to-date analysis these figures remark a 93.9 percent spike of 1,299 through Oct. 31, 2020, compared to 2019’s 670. Gun arrests for the month of October leapt by 102 percent from 248 in 2019 to 502 in 2020, with an increase in every borough and with the year-to-date tally up 15 percent.

Murders for the month of October fell from 36 in 2019 to 35 in 2020, while on a year-to-date analysis homicides are up 37 percent for the first 10 months of 2020 compared to 2019.

Last night one fatal shooting occurred in a public housing complex in Upper Manhattan, while two other shooting incidents related to automobile theft both occurred in the Bronx.

The NYPD made mention of the unique circumstance of the coronavirus pandemic as having a part to play in the city’s increases in shootings and gun crime, while commentators continue to ascribe part of the blame for the city’s increase in gun bloodshed to peaks in gang-related activity and bail reform.

 Impunity City

In Ozone Park, a homeless man shot a bodega store clerk to death after the worker kicked him out of the store for being a nuisance and he returned with a gun from the car he was living in that was parked across the street. As the man was about to shoot the other clerk, an off-duty cop tackled him to the floor.

 

Man wearing Black Lives Matter merch robs gas station at gunpoint

 Impunity City

...in Astoria, two men held up and robbed a gas station at gunpoint, grabbing $450 from the register and the cashier's cellphone. One of the thieves was wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt and BLM cap. This not only shows how he denigrated the social justice movement with his criminal act, but also sadly showed how the movement's slogan has been reduced and devolved into a commercial brand.

New York City's New Bad Days are here as more shootings and illegal fireworks are reported

Impunity City

 During the last two months of the lockdown of the five boroughs and with a sizeable amount of cops stricken by COVID-19, home and commercial property burglaries and vehicle theft shot up in massive numbers in May as murders and robberies show higher incremental ticks. Crime in the subway made significant gains even though service is cut and commuting went down nearly 90%.  

Shootings went up by a lot (especially in Brooklyn) which shouldn’t be surprising considering you can be more than six feet to hit your target. Drag racing also went up in the last 3 months as the city was mostly barren from mass isolation.
 
As May began Governor Cuomo gave the order to kick the homeless off the trains including banning every other commuter from the subway at 1 am until the clock struck 5 so the trains can get thoroughly cleaned..Which had no effect with the homeless who prefer to sleep during the morning and noon hours as the lower paid contractors deftly cleaned around them. 

 And that's only a sample of NYC's Spring of chaos and disorder...

NY Post

 Bullets are whizzing around New York this month at a rate not seen in nearly a quarter-century, according to the NYPD — and police sources warned that the recent rate of gunplay may be the new normal.
Through the first three weeks of June, which came to a close Sunday, city streets echoed with 125 shooting incidents, Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri told The Post on Monday.
“We have to go back to June of 1996 to get a worse start for June,” said LiPetri. “That is a telling stat.”
Twenty-four years ago, Rudy Giuliani was mayor and, while the city had made strides in tamping down crime, Gotham still saw 2,938 people shot and 984 killed.
Although overall crime citywide remains down 2.5 percent for the year, shootings, already trending up this year, exploded in June.
From Monday, June 15, through Sunday, there were 53 shooting incidents across the city, the highest mark for a single week since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office.
The last time the city recorded that many shootings in a week was around July 4, 2012, according to police sources.
But to find a nonholiday week — which tends to be quieter — with that many shootings, the department had to look all the way back to 2005, according to LiPetri.
“This weekend we also saw real challenges out in our streets in terms of gun violence,” said de Blasio in a press briefing, remarking on the blood-soaked stretch that included 24 people shot citywide Saturday.
“We are not going to allow gun violence to continue to grow in this city,” vowed Hizzoner.


Gothamist

 As thundering firework displays continue to shoot through New York City's skies, they're trailed by a boom in complaints about the illegal use of pyrotechnics. From Washington Heights to Ditmas Park, weary residents say they've been pushed to the brink by screeching explosions that begin before sundown and last well into the morning.

According to city data, 849 complaints about fireworks were logged with the city's 311 hotline in the last two weeks alone. That's a nearly 4,000 percent increase from the same period in 2019, which saw just 21 recorded complaints. In the first two weeks of June during the previous five years, there were less than 50 complaints related to fireworks in total.

As with other 311 data, it's not clear that the figures reflect an actual spike in activity. In many cases, the growth of nuisance calls is a better barometer of gentrification than any specific change in behavior. But while illicit fireworks have long served as the sonic backdrop to summer nights in NYC, some residents say the intensity and frequency has been noticeably greater in 2020, with many of the late-night displays appearing strangely professional.

"There’s something louder, longer, and crazier about it that’s weird," said Phoebe Streblow, a Flatbush resident. "Just the sheer cost alone of these productions is suspect. They're about the size of fireworks at a minor league ballpark."

Shootings rise in Southeast Queens and there is only one hospital to treat the victims

THE CITY

 During the first 2020 presidential debate in June, then-candidate Mayor Bill de Blasio touted New York City’s drop in crime. But even as the number of shootings has dramatically decreased across the city over the past decade, a troubling trend has emerged: The proportion of people dying from gunshots has been rising in some pockets.

Data obtained from the New York Police Department and analyzed by The Trace/Measure of America/THE CITY shows this problem has been most severe in Queens.

We mapped the 12,000-plus shootings recorded by the NYPD between 2010 and October 2018, and our analysis found that the further away someone was from a Level I or II trauma center when they were shot, the more likely they were to die.

Nowhere fared worse than neighborhoods in southern Queens, particularly those below Hillside Avenue, where more residents live further than three miles from a trauma center than anywhere else in the city.

There used to be more trauma coverage in the borough. But in February 2009, two hospitals closed, and one of them contained a Level I trauma center.

In the following two years, the gunshot fatality rate in Queens jumped from under 16% to more than 23%. That put the borough’s gunshot fatality rate 30% higher than in the rest of the city.

Since then, every year except for 2016, the death rate from gunshots in Queens has been higher than in the city as a whole.

 “How well your trauma system works, and how good your care is across the country is a big mosaic, and where you are will determine your outcomes,” said Dr. Robert Winchell, the former chair of the trauma systems committee for the American College of Surgeons.

Today, most areas of New York City have access to multiple trauma centers while southern Queens has only one: Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. But financial documents, audits and state reports indicate the facility is ailing.

The hospital was in the red 12 of the 13 years between 2005 and 2017. It finished that year with a deficit of more than $66 million, according to IRS filings and an independent audit.

“I’m not sure how you keep the doors open with that,” said Winchell, who is also chief of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center’s trauma division.

I'm not sure you can either when the city would rather spend $11,000,000,000 on tower jails.

NYPD detective shot to death trying to stop a holdup in Richmond Hill

NY Daily News 

A NYPD detective was shot and killed, and a sergeant was wounded in a furious gunbattle Tuesday night with an armed robber in Queens, law enforcement sources said.

The death is the first line-of-duty fatality for 2019.

According to sources, police were responding to an armed robbery at a T-Mobile cell phone store at Atlantic Ave. and 121st St. in Richmond Hill at around 6:14 p.m.

A 19-year veteran detective and a squad sergeant were struck by gunfire as at least one suspect holed up inside the store, sources said. A suspect was also shot in the confrontation.

The detective was hit in the chest; he has a wife and two children, sources said. The sergeant was struck by gunfire in the hip. It wasn’t clear if the officers were wearing bullet-proof vests.

Update:

NY Post 


The NYPD detective killed while responding to a robbery in Queens was struck by friendly fire, Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a press conference Tuesday night.


Detective Brian Simonsen, 42, was fatally shot by a fellow officer while responding to a robbery at a T-Mobile phone store on Atlantic Avenue near 120th Street in Richmond Hill soon after 6 p.m., police said.


A sergeant who responded to the robbery with Simonsen was also shot in the leg during the incident but is expected to recover.


The suspected robber, a 27-year-old with a lengthy rap sheet, was also shot and is in serious condition, authorities said. He was using an imitation gun during the robbery, O’Neill said.

Another update:

NY Daily News

Simonsen and Gorman opened fire on the suspect, and as they retreated from the store, they were struck by bullets from cops outside, O’Neill said.

Simonsen was fatally shot in the chest and Gorman was hit in the hip.

“Make no mistake about it — friendly fire aside, it is because of the actions of the suspect that Detective Simonsen is dead,” said O’Neill, who appeared near tears.

“We lost a very good man,” Mayor Bill de Blasio

The situation by the detective and his partner was under control and the backup panicked and shot at the two cops. This is going to get national attention regarding the issue of the justification of excessive force and the leniency meted by the justice system towards officers who commit it. But mostly this falls on the shoulders of the lousy and distant "leadership" of presidential wannabe Mayor de Blasio.

And this comes a week on the day two decades ago when Amadou Diallo was shot 41 times by police who thought his wallet was a weapon.

 

 Sympathies go out to the family of Det. Simonsen, who did a stalwart job tracking down this recidivist criminal.

Well wishes go out to Sgt. Gorman and his family.

As for the stupid knucklehead who got shot. You had it coming.

Another Update:

NY Post

 
The deadly barrage, which officials said unfolded in all of a minute, was the chaotic culmination of Ransom’s interrupted robbery of a T-Mobile store Tuesday night, according to cops.

Ransom, 27, stormed into the Richmond Hill store at about 6 p.m. wearing a black mask, ordered two workers into a back room and tied them up, police sources said.

 Outside, at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and 120th Street, cops alerted by two 911 callers were massing, among them 19-year NYPD veteran Simonsen, who was working on his day off to crack a robbery pattern ahead of a Thursday CompStat meeting, sources said.

Gorman, 31, and two fellow officers were the first to push into the mobile store, which they found abandoned — until Ransom sprang from the back room, pointing the fake gun at them and pulling the trigger, authorities said.

Assuming Ransom’s firearm to be real and simply jammed, the trio took no chances and retreated to the street, where they took up tactical positions along with Simonsen and four other cops, according to police.

Still holding his gun high and dry-firing it, Ransom emerged from the store to find himself in the middle of two waves of blue, with a group of cops including Gorman to his right, and Simonsen among a squad to his left, sources said.
 
Seven officers opened fire, squeezing off a total of 42 rounds.

Gorman fired 11 times. Simonsen shot twice.

“Be advised, I’m shot,” a cop, presumably Gorman, can be heard telling a dispatcher in a police radio recording of the drama, posted to Twitter by @NYScanner. “Please set up a route going to Jamaica [Hospital].”

Though the recording is apparently partially redacted, Simonsen’s voice is never heard above the din of gunfire and frantic calls of “Shots fired!”

The mayhem was over in seconds.

 Once Ransom was down, the toll of the fusillade, all NYPD rounds, became apparent to cops.

Gorman had caught a round in the leg, while Simonsen, who hadn’t been wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot through the chest.

Gorman was treated at Jamaica Hospital, where he remained Wednesday. In the same hospital, Simonsen was pronounced dead, leaving behind a wife and a mother.

 

Murder at Jackson Heights train station in broad daylight in front of commuters

NY Daily News

A man was shot to death Sunday on a crowded Queens subway platform, in a chaotic confrontation that’s captured on a shocking cell phone video posted on social media.

Police believe the victim and other men were fighting on a Manhattan-bound No. 7 train when it pulled up to the platform at 90^th St. and Elmhurst Ave. in Jackson Heights around 12:45 p.m.

The melee spilled out onto the platform when the doors opened, and that’s when one commuter starts recording with his cell phone camera.

“I thought they were fighting for no reason, as drunken people. I just kept taking video, and all of a sudden one person pulled out a gun and started shooting,” that commuter, Bidur Bista, told the Daily News.

 The victim, believed to be in his 20s, was shot in the head and died on the scene, cops said.

Investigators believe the shooter may have wrested the gun, a .22-caliber pistol, from the victim during the struggle, then killed him with it, police sources said.

 NYPD Transit Chief Edward Delatorre said cops are still trying to sort out why the men were fighting and whether they knew each other before the melee.

 "The New York City subway system remains incredibly safe for the millions of riders who use it every day, with an average of approximately one crime for every million riders per day,” Delatorre said Sunday.

Why the necessity to bring up that statistic? This guy emptied his clip and blew his head off on the busiest transit line in Queens in front of witnesses and a guy filming it on his phone.


The Bad Days are back.

Now this is what you call a bad hombre!

From the Queens Chronicle:

A Jackson Heights man convicted of rape and twice deported from the United States was sentenced to 57 months in prison by a federal judge last Wednesday for illegally re-entering the country, prosecutors said.

Judge Sandra Feuerstein ruled that Rogelio Mendez, 38, a Mexican national who also has gone by “Rogelio Mendez-Puebla” will serve the time consecutively with the 30-month sentence he got in Suffolk County court last year after pleading guilty to third-degree rape.

He was working at a restaurant in Southampton, LI, when that crime occurred in September 2016. Mendez raped a woman at a house he shared with co-workers.

He’s incarcerated for the rape now.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Mendez was first deported from America in 2004, after he served a two-year prison term for illegally possessing a loaded gun in Queens.

He came back to the United States in 2005 and was deported again in 2009.

Then, Mendez illegally re-entered the United States a year later.

Strange College Point shooting

From NBC:

In Queens, the hunt is on for four masked men who shot and killed a driver after a fender-bender escalated in College Point. Wale Aliyu reports.