Police nab suspected fugitive
A car theft near the Civic Center led police to arrest a man reportedly wanted for murder and rape in North Carolina.
On Tues., Sept. 1 at around 3:30 p.m., police responded to a call that a car had been stolen near Warren St. and Broadway. The owner, a 55-year-old woman, told police that she had left her 2014 Honda Pilot running with the keys in the ignition and that someone had taken off with it.
A police officer downloaded an app on his cell phone to find the SUV on Smith St. between Pacific and Dean Sts. after it went over the Brooklyn Bridge, police say. The officers stopped the car and arrested the driver.
Police say they searched the man and found a handgun in his pants pocket. A second handgun was also found beneath the driver’s seat, police say. The man was taken to the First Precinct where the police learned he was wanted for “violent crimes” in Raleigh, which according to news reports, included murder and rape.
In New York, Raleigh resident Kendrick Gregory, 21, has been charged with grand larceny in the third degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, according to police.
Downtown chain snatches
Two pricey gold chains were snatched off victim’s necks in the Financial District two weeks ago, police say.
In the first incident, at the corner of State and Whitehall Sts. on Sat., Aug. 29 at 4:40 p.m. two men got into a verbal dispute. The fight escalated with one of the men punched the other in the face repeatedly, causing bruising and swelling to the victim’s left check. The aggressor then grabbed the $4,000 14 karat gold chain off the victim’s neck, who is 22 and from Long Island.
Police described the suspect as around 25, 5ft. 7” and 140 pounds.
The next day, on Sun., Aug. 30, a Brooklyn woman, 57, was on the 2 train at 9 a.m., police say. As the train pulled into the Wall St. station, a man standing next to her ripped the $2,000 gold and diamond chain off her neck. The suspect took off when the doors opened. The woman ran after him, but lost site of him as he fled.
Escaped prisoner is caught
A prisoner who escaped from a Downtown hospital on Sunday night was caught by police on the Upper West Side last week, according to authorities.
Tiffany Neumann, 23, had slipped out of her handcuffs and fled from NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital Aug. 30 after she was arrested the previous day for skipping out on her bill on the Upper West Side and snatching clothes from a store down the block, according to the New York Times.
Police say she was apprehended Sept. 1 around 8:45 a.m. not far from the original crimes.
She has now been charged with escape, four counts of grand larceny and four counts of criminal possession of stolen property.
At a press conference last week, police officials expressed their anger over the episode, which was at least the fourth in the city since June, according to the Times.
The chief of the department, James P. O’Neill, attributed the escape to “inattentiveness and carelessness” on the part of the officers involved, one of whom has reportedly been suspended.
“There’s no excuse for it,” O’Neill said. “It’s embarrassing. She’s not a mastermind criminal.”
Neumann had originally given a fake name to the officers who arrested her and also told them she was pregnant and feeling ill. They took her to the hospital from Lower Manhattan’s booking facility.
Car break-in
A man was enjoying his Saturday night at a club in Hudson Square while a thief broke into his car and grabbed $1,525 worth of stuff, police say.
The 34-year-old New Jersey parked his car in front of 23 King St. Aug. 29, and made sure all his doors were locked, he told police. He then went to the club, which the police did not name — SOB’s is the closest to the crime.
When he returned at 2:30 a.m., Sun. Aug. 30, the driver’s side window was broken and a thief got away with a black backpack, clothes, keys, various credit cards, a $425 Samsung phone, $650 iPod, $450 iPad and gold earrings and ring, according to police.
Police did not release a description of the vehicle.
— DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC & YANNIC RACK
