Last week, a July beating where the attacker allegedly told his victim, "We don't like faggots on Barker Street," was deemed a hate crime by the Staten Island DA's office. Chief ADA Dan Master said the victim "was targeted because of his perceived sexual orientation," and charged 24-year-old James Champagne with third-degree assault as a hate crime, a felony, and second-degree aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor. This week, the NAACP entered the fray (Champagne is black);......

Cornelius Abson, who admitted to choking and robbing an 85-year-old woman as well as robbing other victims, appeared in court last Friday. However, his arraignment was postponed because his lawyer requested a psychological exam. Lawyer Eric Bannister said, "It's my belief that my client is suffering serious mental health issues," and noted the bruises and bump on his client's head, "I believe my client has a legitimate fear for his safety." Abson, who claimed his......

The police have arrested a suspect in the brutal attack and robbery of an 85-year-old woman in a Crown Heights elevator last week. According to the Daily News, Cornelius Abson "confessed and then apologized for choking and robbing Lillian France." But a police source adds, "He's sorry he got caught. He wasn't sorry when he was choking the lady." It's suspected that Abson followed France from her bank on Eastern Parkway to the apartment......

Yesterday, a Canadian tourist, staying at a friend's apartment at The Heywood on Ninth Ave. and West 26th, was followed into the building and attacked around 4 a.m. The Post reports the suspect "followed her into the apartment and choked her into unconsciousness," and the victim "awoke minutes later to find her clothes partially removed, a small amount of cash, jewelry and a cellphone missing." But the attacker was gone; police tell the Daily News......

The Center for Urban Future has compiled what they say is the first-ever ranking of national retailers that have the most stores in New York City. Fittingly called “Attack of the Chains,” the ranking includes data on more than 160 retailers operating in the city. (The recently announced Starbucks closings will reduce the coffee retailer's presence in New York to a scant 235 locations – unless the passionate protests of one Bay Ridge man......

Early this morning three more stabbings occurred in the South Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Since April there have been a number of similar stabbings in the area; police have reportedly said that some of the incidents may be part of a gang initiation. Sometimes the attackers have been on bikes, and sometimes they have been wielding machetes; one common thread is that the victims do not know the assailants, who have not stolen anything......

An assistant conductor noticed a man attacking a woman yesterday at the Freeport LIRR station, according to Newsday. Passengers thought they heard a child crying and when assistant conductor Eugene Chino lookd at the end of the platform, he saw the assault, which "occurred on the trackbed between the two tracks alongside the cement housing for the platform staircase." The 3:42 p.m. train from Babylon to Penn Station was stopped and the suspect apprehended.......

Last week an ex-con attacked a woman in Park Slope, and the news is hitting the papers today. The NY Post reports that 32-year-old Thomas Russo followed 39-year-old Diana Greiner along 6th Avenue in Brooklyn last Tuesday around 11:45 p.m. Somewhere near Lincoln Place, Russo struck Greiner's skull (fracturing it) and slashed her face and body before fleeing on foot into a bodega. He was caught on tape and is currently being charged with attempted......

If anyone has been curious about convicted journalist-turned-sex attacker Peter Braunstein, wonder no more. The Daily News interviewed the "fake fireman sicko" in an Ohio prison and learned he's actually pretty content. Braunstein, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for posing as a firefighter, holding a work colleague captive in her apartment, and sexually abusing her for 13 hours in 2005, is in Cincinnati to face robbery charges (while on the run, he......

The Williamsburg Stabber, who is more than likely a group of stabbers, has struck again. In April two cops walking the beat told us "the increased police presence was in response to a spate of machete-wielding gang violence" -- well, a lot of good the increased security has done. A tipster writes in to tell us about last weekend's Saturday morning stabbing, which police suspect was part of a gang initiation and in step with......

After an off-duty detective shot two men at a Baxter St. residential address--killing one of them--cops are looking for the ex-boyfriend of the building's receptionist. Detective Martin Carrano fired ten shots Wednesday evening after he had been slashed in the back of his head and in defense of 26-year-old Artemda Gjeli, who worked as a receptionist at the building. Carrano was checking in on Gjeli after she reported a threatening phone call from her ex-boyfriend,......

A gang of five trailed a pair of off-duty cops in Washington Heights around midnight last night and jumped them in an attempted robbery that did not go well. Things went sideways for the assailants almost immediately when one of them initiated the attack by picking up a wooden folding chair from the trash and hitting one of the officers on the back of the head with it. The approach has been known to work......

The owner of Munchies Bodega in Brownsville Brooklyn, Salah Ahmad, was indicted by a grand jury on assault and other charges for bludgeoning teenager Bunkless Bovian with a hammer. Bovian was placed in a medically induced coma following the incident last month, but has since been released from Brookdale University Hospital. Initial accounts of the attack reported that Ahmad struck Bovian in the skull after a dispute over alleged shoplifting. Surveillance video later showed Ahmad......

After doing time for violating probation and assaulting a manicurist, Rapper Foxy Brown found herself in court again yesterday. This time it was for attacking a neighbor with her Blackberry phone, causing the victim a bruised eye and chipped tooth. Brown, who in the past has pleaded guilty and then tried to take it back, pleaded guilty. By doing so, she avoids trial and thus a maximum sentence of seven years behind bars. Instead, a......

The morning after George Atterbury, general manager of Grayz restaurant on West 54th Street, was interviewed by Eater about his experiences greeting swells at Grayz, he was slashed in the face and stabbed in the abdomen by three men on the East Side. A dining blog curse, or just a random act of violence? Police are now suggesting another possible explanation: mob ties. This isn’t the first time the dapper Atterbury’s been victimized by thugs;......

After showing surveillance images of a man who allegedly sexually attacked a woman for hours before robbing her, police have made an arrest. Emerson Deno, 32, was charged with rape, criminal sex act, burglary, robbery and unlawful imprisonment. Deno followed the victim from the West 191st subway station to her apartment near West 190th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue around 5 p.m. last Friday. When she got to her apartment and started to unlock her......

The police are looking for two men suspected of robbing an elderly woman at gunpoint on Tuesday afternoon. As the woman entered her apartment on Neptune Avenue, police say two men "forced their way into the apartment, where the tied up the 73-year-old woman at gunpoint before taking her ATM card, pin number and assorted jewelry." Seventy-three-year-old Shirley Rosenstock managed to break free and call the police. The police found that her ATM card......

Earlier in the week, unconfirmed reports of a knife-wielding assailant had Williamsburg residents on edge; South Williamsburg in particular has been flooded with patrolmen all week, and we’ve heard from readers who say they’ve been written summons for minor offenses like jaywalking. Though the 90th Precinct and the NYPD press liaison are unforthcoming about the dragnet, two officers walking their beat by the future Pies ‘n’ Thighs location on Driggs and South 4th Street told......

A 22-year-old Hofstra student was arrested for kidnapping and assaulting a Zeta Beta Tau brother before stranding him on a road. Adam Schelberg was allegedly upset because he thought the victim was dating his ex-girlfriend. Schelberg asked the victim to take a ride in his car and drive him to a Hempstead street corner where four of Schelberg's friends were waiting. Nassau County Detective Raymond Cote said, "Four men approach the car, they open the......

The 14-year-old boy held for second-degree manslaughter in the death of a Columbia graduate student appeared in family court yesterday, as lawyers, police officials, and an aunt who cares for him weighed in. A judge assigned the boy, named Sheldon, lawyers and decided he would be tried as a juvenile offender in Family Court. A city Law Department attorney told the court, "This attack was predatory in nature." The boy, named Sheldon, had punched 24-year-old......

Police say that two teenaged boys led them to the 13- (or 14-) year-old charged with manslaughter in the death of Columbia graduate student Minghui Yu. On Friday night, the teen had punched Yu in the face at a median on Broadway between 122nd and 123rd Streets. After a struggle, Yu managed to escape and ran into the street, only to be fatally hit by a car. The police have not charged the two other......

In the latest livery cab nightmare, a tipster points us to an incident that occurred on March 12th, when a woman used a car service to get home at night.Last night [name redacted] took Metro Car service home. At our house the driver followed her to our door and groped/molested her. She fought him off and he left. I called Metro Line to let them know what happened and try get a name of the......

The police are continuing to look for James Gonzalez, who is suspected of fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend at a grocery store as well as stabbing her co-worker. The attack occurred Friday afternoon at the East Village Key Foods location. Gonzalez, 42, who had done some part-time work at the Key Foods where he met 24-year-old Tina Negron and dated her on-and-off for a year up until a few months ago, fled the store on foot.......

The man who attacked two women this weekend after picking them up under the guise of being a legit livery cab driver has been arrested. One of Torkieh Sadagheh's victims, Monica Maneiro of Morningside Heights, hailed his car after getting off work at Scores strip club on Saturday night; the 23-year-old recounts what happened next:"Out of nowhere he just stopped the cab and jumped in the back seat. He grabbed me and had his hand......

As the police try to reconstruct the events of Thursday night's mugging attack, a little more information is offered about some of those involved. Subway conductor Maurice Parks was walking home when he was attacked by a group of muggers in Harlem, at West 139th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue late Thursday night. When stabbed, Parks took out his own knife to defend himself. By the end, the police arrested a wounded attacker and another......

Yesterday, the story was that a transit worker had been stabbed by four muggers, only to amazingly fight back and stab two of them. One died, one was wounded, another was apprehended, and a fourth was on the loose. But then, as more information was released, it seems that the man who died was not in the group of muggers but a bystander, perhaps even a Good Samaritan trying to help, who was caught......

Whoa: A NYC Transit worker who was walking home in Harlem was attacked by a group of four men. One stabbed him, but 5 train conductor Maurice Parks managed to pull out his own knife and retaliate, stabbing one 28-year-old in the chest and a 22-year-old in the stomach. The four men, who approached the transit worker near 139th and St. Nicholas Avenue, were trying to rob him. The 22-year-old and a 15-year-old attempted......