Results tagged “bronx”

Before Cablevision visited her Riverdale home, 79-year-old Elizabeth Bernd says she was active for her age. But when the cable guy arrived, the Daily News reports, he allegedly "unfastened preexisting wiring that had been fastened together underneath (her) computer desk/station," she tripped over the wires left loose, broke her leg, had a stroke and now is living in a nursing home. Bernd is suing for $5 million, accusing the cable company of negligence noting that she cannot "even talk or eat without great difficulty."

It comes as no surprise that the off-duty NYPD detective who fatally struck an elderly pedestrian early Friday morning in the Bronx has an alcohol problem. Detective Kevin (Spike) Spellman had a blood alcohol level of 0.21 percent—more than twice the legal limit—almost six hours after the accident. Now it's being reported that this isn't the first time booze has caused problems for Spellman and others.

This seems like one of those instances when it's best to keep your mouth shut. Brooklyn sculptor Diego Medina's "14-foot-tall tagger's dream" has remained graffiti-free in front of the Bronx River Arts Center since the unpainted plywood sculpture was installed in July — a fact so astounding to the Daily News that the tabloid decided to jinx celebrate the artwork by dedicating an entire article to the shocking lack of tagging.

The off-duty NYPD detective who fatally struck an elderly pedestrian early Friday morning in the Bronx had a blood alcohol level of 0.21 percent almost six hours after the accident. Despite delaying the test for hours by refusing to cooperate without a warrant, 22-year NYPD veteran Kevin Spellman, 42, was still very intoxicated. (The legal limit is 0.08 percent.) Spellman's alcohol level was certainly much higher at the time of the crash, but because people metabolize alcohol at different rates, it's anyone's guess how wasted he was at 6:30 a.m.

Yesterday around noon, a 16-year-old student at Bronx Regional High School was shot around 12:30 p.m. According to NY1, the teen told the police that the suspect was trying to rob him. And one student said, "They said the boy wanted his jacket and Paul said 'I'm not giving you my jacket.' And somebody said they was fighting at first, people was around watching and they didn't take it seriously. And they shot him."

Get ready for another NY Post expose on the jaywalking epidemic. It's being reported that a 22-year-old Bronx man was killed after being hit by a city bus while "darting" across the street. The Daily News notes that Luis Rivera was "crossing midblock when he was crushed by a Bx21 bus heading north on Boston Road in Tremont at 10:30 p.m. Saturday." They add that the bus driver was not drunk and has a clean driving record, but that Rivera was jaywalking.

Owners of 14 businesses destroyed by a five-alarm fire on Saturday may get a hand from the city—the city's Department of Small Business Services emergency response unit has been meeting with them, according to the Daily News. The agency said, "Our team is helping these businesses obtain copies of permits/licenses consumed by the fire, expedite [Fire Department] reports required for insurance claims as well as connecting them to other N.Y.C. Business Solutions services."

Yesterday's five-alarm fire has devastated the owners of 14 businesses along Bainbridge Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx. Mahmoud Zaghari, whose brother's convenience store was ruined, told WCBS 2, "All our money was in this store, all our investment was in this store, and in two, three hours, nothing - that's it."

The off-duty police detective who fatally struck a pedestrian in the Bronx yesterday morning was charged with vehicular homicide, criminally negligent homicide, and DWI. Detective Kevin Spellman had been driving a Chevrolet into the Bronx intersection of W. 232 Street and Kingsbridge Avenue, hitting 67-year-old Drana Nikac. A witness said, "He had a red light. He went through a red light and he was speeding. He was speeding."

Firefighters have been fighting a 5-alarm fire at 3105 Bainbridge Avenue off East 204th Street in the Bronx. WCBS 2 reports, "Though firefighters arrived shortly after 3 a.m. to find only heavy smoke, it quickly turned into a conflagration. The fire could be seen for blocks, and smelled for miles."

Earlier this morning, around 7 a.m., a woman was struck by a vehicle at West 232nd Street and Kingsbridge Avenue. The woman later died at St. Barnabas Hospital and now an off-duty police officer has been taken into custody.

Because the Department of Transportation is changing alternate side of the street parking rules (the streets will be cleaned just once a week, versus twice), parking rules will be suspended as the signs are being changed out. Which will take 6-8 weeks. One resident said, "I heard about it a while ago, and I've been waiting on this religiously. I'm thrilled it's finally happening." The Daily News says, "Any community board can request a reduced street-cleaning schedule from the Sanitation Department." In this case, it took a year and a half to get it approved.

       

The Bronx Museum recently opened an exhibit featuring Bronx "artifacts" from 1971 to present day. Urban Archives: That Was Then This Is Now is "the first of a new, multi-year series of exhibitions that look at contemporary culture as a living archive.” This one was drawn primarily from personal collections of artists that have been working in and on the Bronx for decades, and "in their collections, the testimonies of long-time residents and occasional visitors coexist in the form of mementos, documentation, artwork and other sort of cultural artifacts." Check it out sometime between now and March 1st.

The 18-year-old who is accused of firing a gun into the air—and killing a 92-year-old woman in her Bronx home—pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder. Jamal Blair is being held without bail and his lawyer is trying to explain that his client has had a tough childhood, "In 1993 he was 2 years old and witnessed his father murder his mother. He stayed with his mother's body until his grandparents found discovered what happened almost a day later. It still stays with him."

Although Jamal Blair, the 18-year-old arrested for killing a 92-year-old Bronx woman, allegedly confessed to police, he told reporters last night, "I didn't do it. I was framed by the police. The police did it, they framed me, man. No justice."

The police announced that an 18-year-old was arrested in connection to the death of a 92-year-old woman in her Bronx home. Sadie Mitchell was apparently struck by a stray bullet on Tuesday evening, when a shot was fired during a fight between two groups of youths. Witnesses told cops that Jamal Blair, 18, was the shooter and he allegedly confessed. A source tells the Daily News, "He told cops he thought he was shooting up in the air. The lady was 15 feet [above ground] in her home when the bullet hit."

Family and friends of the 92-year-old who was fatally killed by a stray bullet in her Bronx home on Tuesday are still reeling from the tragedy. Sadie Mitchell's daughter Sharon van Rooij said, "When someone is in their 90s, it's inevitable that they're going to die, but not like this... Not at the hands of some punk. I hope [the killer] will fry. I don't care how old you are -- 18, 19, 30 or 12. I hope you fry."

Neighbors are outraged after a 92-year-old was fatally shot by an apparently stray bullet that entered her home on East 224th Street in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx. According to the NY Times, "It was unclear whether Ms. Mitchell was the intended target, but the police said it appeared some youths had gotten into a fight on the street" before the 5:30 p.m. incident.

Today the City Planning Commission approved a controversial plan to turn the Kingsbridge Armory, a massive red-brick castle in the Bronx, into a mall that will include a large department store, shops and a movie theater. Outspoken opponents of the $310 million project include Bronx borough president Rubén Díaz Jr., who insists the developer should not get the green light unless future mall employees are guaranteed a living wage: "These jobs are not going to allow Bronx families to get themselves out of poverty." It's now up to the City Council to vote on the project.

When we reported Tuesday that a fourth sick, emaciated goat had been found wandering in the area of Pelham Bay Park near the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx, one commenter provided a possible explanation for the mystery: "These goats aren't 'escaping' from anywhere. they're the victims of Santeria sacrifice that regularly takes place in Pelham Bay Park." Indeed, locals have long reported seeing candles, fruits and animal bones and skulls in the area.

Bronx resident Sanija Kurtovic is eight months pregnant, and she got quite a scare the other day when her parked car was sideswiped as she was about to get out. But what's even scarier is that the vehicle that hit her was an NYPD cruiser, and the driver allegedly fled the scene. Kurtovic says that after her car was hit, she ran up to Officer Shirley Perez-Romero, who was stopped at a red light. But the cop allegedly played dumb, acting as if she didn't realize an accident had occured. Kurtovic says the officer told her she would do a U-turn and file a report, but instead Officer Perez-Romero just drove off.

Yet another wandering goat has been found in Pelham Bay Park, near the junction of I-95 South and the Hutchinson River Parkway in the Bronx. The white male goat, seen here, is estimated to be approximately two years old and suffering from what appears to be an advanced upper respiratory infection. His ears are also mutilated, according to Farm Sanctuary, which has agreed to receive the goat at their upstate farm.

Miguel Matias pleaded guilty to strangling his 14-year-old daughter and throwing her body into a Bronx building's boiler in 2008. Earlier this year, rape and incest charges were added against him, because DNA evidence showed his daughter was 12 weeks pregnant with his child. With this plea, Matias faces up to 25 years to life in prison; his lawyer said he would have faced up to 50 years to life if the case went to trial, "We had to [plead]. It’s not a triable case."

NY1 reports 12 students were hospitalized "after a pepper spray fight erupted in the school cafeteria." The East Fordham Road building, which houses a number of schools, was evacuated in an apparently confusing manner. Students said, "If it was a real emergency, if it was a fire, we probably would have been the last ones to get out," and "Most people were pushing. It was scary. And they didn't really organize it when we were outside, because some people were saying to either go home or stay in."

Throw out those tired old surgical masks, because the swine flu vaccine has come to cure us all! The first batches arrived in the city today as nasal sprays and are being given to children and medical workers at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. About 560 of the 68,000 doses were administered today, and the injectable version is due to arrive in the city next week.

The Putnam Trail in Van Cortlandt Park contains many rail remnants (including an old passenger platform) from the New York Central Railroad's Putnam Division, which began construction there in the 1870s. Amongst the historical artifacts that remain in the overgrown trail are 13 stones that were placed there prior to 1903 by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. He had quarries send him samples to help determine which weathered best, with the chosen one used as the building material for Grand Central Terminal. "In the end, the second southernmost stone, Indiana limestone, was chosen not for its durability but for its cheaper transportation cost across Vanderbilt's railways." Who knew we had our very own Stonehenge in the Bronx!

A 17-year-old boy was reportedly shot in the back by NYPD officers patrolling the Gouverneur Morris Houses in the Bronx last night around 9:30. Police say they spotted Peter Colon carrying a .22-caliber gun in a stairwell of the housing project, and when a female officer reached for the gun, Colon fought back. The Daily News, which reports Colon's age as 19, says the teen hit the female cop in the face and pointed the gun at her. At that point, her partner then shot at Colon twice, hitting him once in the back.

The good folks at NY1 didn't have to think too hard when it came to their "New Yorker of The Week" this week. The honor went to Horia (Billy) Cretan, the electronics store owner who ran into a burning building in the Bronx to save a 4-year-old boy on Wednesday. Cretan recounted his time with the boy as he held him, saying, "I said, 'Stay there and just keep your head up and make sure you breathe. No matter what you do don't go nowhere, you are going to be fine.'" And as if there's any question this guy is basically the most admirable man in the galaxy right now, he settled it by quickly changing the subject from his rescue and saying, "I hope somebody will come forward to help these families that suffered damage." Cretan was also honored yesterday by Bronx Beep Ruben Diaz Jr.

Yesterday police arrested a special education teacher for the Bronx School Of Science Inquiry and Investigation at M.S. 331, charging him with rape and sexual misconduct. Teacher Bill Agosto, 26, is charged with third degree rape and sexual misconduct for allegedly carrying on a year-long sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl, who was not a student at M.S. 331. Police sources tell the Daily News the relationship was consensual, and resulted in the girl getting pregnant. The affair allegedly began when he worked at a different school as a track coach.

Yay! Upon hearing screams from a Bronx building, a stranger ran up a fire escape, kicked in the window of a burning apartment and rescued a 4-year-old boy. Horia Cretan said, "I heard somebody scream, I didn't know what was happening outside. I looked up and just couldn't see nothing, there was too much smoke. I just kicked in--I kicked in gear. I put the ladder down, I went upstairs, I did the best I could."