Bad-neighbor policy
Firefighters responded to a third-floor apartment at 920 E. Sixth St. on March 4, above, where an 84-year-old woman was allegedly attacked by her neighbor, who police say tried to kill her and set the apartment on fire. Below, some burning or smoldering furniture that firefighters tossed out a window.
Union Sq. stabbing
Teenage violence, attributed to gang activity at Washington Irving High School, broke out at Union Square on Monday morning March 5 when four suspects attacked a 16-year-old victim and stabbed him several times.
The victim, Mark Tyrell, an East Village resident, had transferred out of Washington Irving in January and was enrolled at Chelsea Campus High School on Sixth Ave. at Broome St., according to news reports. Tyrell transferred to get away from gang activity associated with Washington Irving, according to Deputy Inspector Dennis De Quatro, Ninth Precinct commander.
A 13-year-old student, a truant from Abraham Lincoln Junior High School in Brooklyn, was arrested and charged as a juvenile as the stabber. Police withheld his name because of his age, but a Daily News article identified him as Brian Hodgson. Three accomplices are being sought.
The incident began at about 8:45 a.m. when Tyrell came out of the subway at 14th St., and exchanged words with four youths who pursued him, punched and kicked him, pushed him into the doors of a pizzeria at 104 E. 14th St. and left him there. One of them returned and stabbed him in the chest, shoulder and back with what could have been a screwdriver or an ice pick based on the wounds, police said.
Tyrell was taken to Bellevue Hospital with four stab wounds. His injuries were not life threatening.
De Quatro said the incident apparently developed from a dispute that started the previous week. It was not related to the riot of teenagers last December that left a 17-year-old student dead in the Union Square Greenmarket, De Quatro said.
On Dec. 7 last year, about 50 teenage boys rampaged through the Greenmarket, leaving Taishawn Bellevue, 17, dead and two others injured, one with a stab would and the other hit on the head with an unknown blunt instrument.
Assault and fire
Police arrested Martha Lugo, 66, a resident of the Lillian Wald Houses on E. Sixth St., and charged her with attempted murder in connection with the beating on Sun., March 4, of an 84-year-old woman neighbor whose apartment was set afire in the attack.
The victim, Rosa Rodriguez, was rescued from her burning apartment on the third floor of 920 E. Sixth St. with wounds on her head and a broken right hand.
Lugo knocked on the victim’s door at about 10:25 a.m., asked her to change a $10 bill and then hit her with a pipe, knocking her to the floor. One of the blows broke Rodriguez’s hand, which she had raised to protect her head, according to police at the Ninth Precinct.
Lugo then set fire to bedding in Rodriquez’s apartment and fled as the blaze spread, according to the charges. Neighbors pulled Rodriquez from the burning apartment and she was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.
Lugo was charged with second-degree attempted murder, second-degree arson and first-degree assault. A bond of $60,000 was set as bail pending a March 9 court date.
Delancey St. fatal
A man was killed crossing Delancey St. near the Essex St. intersection at 4 a.m. Sat., March 3, when a van hit him, police said. The victim, 25, a visitor from Massachusetts, was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The driver remained at the scene and was charged only with operating a vehicle with expired insurance.
Monstrous behavior
Police arrested Jamison Dalton, 30, and charged him with assault, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment at about 1:30 a.m. Sat., March 4, for throwing ice at the bartender of Monster Bar, 80 Grove St., and then hitting him in the head with a glass. Dalton then ran into the bar’s kitchen and kicked the glass refrigerator doors and smashed them. Monster security guards grabbed the suspect and held him for police.
Knifepoint robbery
Pedro Roman, 21, was arrested around 1 a.m. Sat., March 4, and charged with the knifepoint holdup and slashing of Rafael Vera, 28, who was sitting in his car parked on Avenue B at E. Fourth St., police said. The suspect pulled a knife, took an iPod and iPod charger from the car and slashed Vera on the head, ear and shoulder, according to the charges. Police recovered the knife and the iPod and charger. Roman was held on first-degree robbery and second-degree assault pending a March 8 court date.
Village water main
A 12-inch water main broke on Barrow St. between W. Fourth and Bedford Sts. on Wednesday morning Feb. 28, causing water service to be shut off for several hours while a crew searched for the precise point of the break and repaired it, according to a Department of Environmental Protection spokesperson. Residents of the area east of Seventh Ave. S. were the first to be aware of the break when their water began running muddy around 2:30 a.m.
Meat Market assault
A male patron of Aer Lounge, 409 W. 13th St., was charged with hitting a woman patron in the face with glass on the dance floor of the club at about 2:15 a.m. Sat., March 3. The glass shattered, seriously cutting the victim, Joy Pilarte, 26, who required 33 stitches to close a laceration between her nose and her lip. A shard of glass also hit Pilarte’s friend, Deva Huggins, who sustained cuts on the face, police said. Ezra McCombs, 30, was charged with second- and third-degree assault in the incident. He was freed on $3,500 bail pending an April 4 court appearance.
Women’s room
Elaine Lopez, 26, a patron of HOME, a club at 530 W. 27th St., was charged with assault in connection with a 2 a.m. incident Sun., March 4, on the queue for the women’s restroom at the club. The defendant grabbed a woman who was trying to get in front of her and hit her in the face with a glass, police said.
Break-in on Eighth
One or more burglars bent the iron security gate of a liquor store at 261 W. 18th St. at Eighth Ave. during the early hours of Sun., Feb. 25, smashed a glass display case and made off with unspecified merchandise, police said. They somehow managed to avoid setting off the store alarm, police said.
Hit Rite Aids
Employees at the Rite Aid at 282 Eighth Ave. near 24th St. stopped a man trying to walk out of the store at 7:20 p.m. Mon., Feb. 26, with two boxes of Entenmann’s pastry (Danish and coconut custard), a gallon of milk and a box of NyQuil without paying. They charged Richard Blumberg, 54, with larceny.
At the Rite Aid at 188 Ninth Ave., near 22nd St. at 6:30 p.m. the same day, a guard stopped a woman trying to walk out with a box of Tylenol and a box of Advil. She fled when the merchandise fell out of her coat, police said.
Leather jacket
A Barneys security guard stopped a man trying to sneak out of the location at 236 W. 18th St. at Seventh Ave. at 6:30 p.m. Tues., Feb. 27, with a leather jacket valued at $2,188. Ivo Milin, 55, was charged with grand larceny.
Roxy ruckuses
A patron of Roxy, the club at 515 W. 18th St., punched another patron in the face at about 11 p.m. Sun., Feb. 25, and became violent and abusive when bouncers ejected him, police said. The suspect, Denis Popov, 28, was charged with assault.
At about 3 a.m. the same day, a woman patron told police that five bouncers at the club manhandled her husband, who was trying to protect her during a fight that broke out. The woman said that when she shouted, “That’s my husband, don’t touch him,” the bouncers threw her to the ground. There were no charges in that incident.
Albert Amateau
