Sidewalk beating
Police arrested two men for their reportedly vicious attack on another man outside a West Village restaurant early on Sun., Jan. 27.
Security guards for Sushi Samba, at 87 Seventh Ave. South, told officers that they saw Robert DeMatteo and Michael Volkert, both 22, engage in a dispute with a 29-year-old man on the sidewalk around 12:30 a.m. The witness said that DeMatteo and Volkert then began repeatedly punching and kicking the other man, continuing the beating after their victim had been knocked to the ground. Police said that when they arrived at the scene several minutes later, the two aggressors were still punching the injured man, who was then taken to New York Downtown Hospital.
DeMatteo and Volkert were both charged with assault.
Bathroom standoff
Sixth Precinct officers searching for a thief early on Sat., Jan. 26, stumbled on a different pair of perpetrators, who reportedly locked themselves in a pizza joint’s bathroom with a sack of pot and a deadly weapon.
Police said they walked into Karavas Pizza ’n Pita while on a canvass shortly after 3 a.m., and instead of finding the culprits for a recent grand larceny, store employees directed them to the bathroom, where Washington Garay, 49, and Andrew Miguel, 27, were holed up. The employees told cops that Garay had been asked to leave after refusing to pay for his food, but had instead locked himself in alongside Miguel.
At first, the two men refused to open the door for the officers, with Garay pointedly telling them, “F— you!” according to the police report, but when they eventually did, the officers noticed a strong marijuana odor.
The cops then found a ziplock bag that held alleged marijuana, apparently belonging to Miguel, which was sitting on top of the toilet. He was also in possession of a box cutter, police said.
Garay was charged with obstructing government administration, for hindering the officers in their attempt to get in the bathroom. Miguel was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana.
Strangled at The Standard
A bar fight at the Meatpacking District’s trendy Standard Hotel turned ugly on Jan. 25, when a man was arrested for reportedly choking his adversary until he passed out.
The alleged victim, 29, told police that during a dispute with Gregory Tassin, 25, around 2 a.m. at Le Bain, the W. 13th St. hotel’s rooftop bar, Tassin punched him in the face, giving him a black eye. He further said that Tassin followed up the strike by grabbing him by the throat and strangling him for several minutes, eventually cutting off his ability to breath and leaving him unconscious. Police arrived at the scene and the victim was treated by paramedics on site and did not need to be hospitalized.
Tassin was charged with strangulation.
Graffiti tagger bagged
The cover of darkness wasn’t enough to protect a local graffiti artist, who was caught by police after a brief chase early on Fri., Jan. 25.
Officers saw Christopher Johnson, 32, spray-painting the abandoned building at 354 West St. — formerly home to the Westworld adult video store — around 12:30 a.m., according to the report. Instead of surrendering once the police made their presence known, Johnson took off running, leading police up the block to Leroy St. before they could corral him.
So in addition to the graffiti charge, cops slapped Johnson with resisting arrest.
Fire escape prowler
After being spied by a sharp-eyed elderly resident, a man who was trespassing outside an apartment building near Union Square on the night of Wed., Jan. 23, was arrested.
Officers arrived at the building, 50 E. 13th St., around 10:30 p.m. after a 70-year-old female resident’s report that there was a stranger on the fire escape. The woman was then able to point out the man, later identified as Javier Romero, 22, as he was climbing from the second to the third floor of the building.
Romero was charged with criminal trespassing.
Get off the tracks!
By now, New Yorkers have heard all about the dangers of being pushed onto the subway tracks, but this guy still seemed to think that jumping down on his own would be a good way to make a shortcut to the other side of the station.
Police in the 14th St. PATH station said they saw Wilkin Orgando, 22, walk across two sets of train tracks around 11:30 a.m. on Wed., Jan. 23, apparently just to cross to the other side. Orgando wasn’t injured by any of the live electrical rails he stepped over, but he quickly had to face the music once two bystanders helped him up onto the platform.
He was arrested for reckless endangerment.
Sam Spokony
