The badly injured survivor of the incident where a garbage truck ran onto a Midtown sidewalk, killing a vacationing British couple, figures his New York instinct to bypass slow-moving tourists ultimately saved his life. Hollis resident Abayomi Henderson told the Daily News he had just finished working out at a nearby gym when he saw Jacqueline Timmins and Andrew Hardie (pictured) on West 35th St. near 6th Ave. Tuesday night. The British tourists were in......

The announcement that six detainees in Guantanamo would be charged and tried for the September 11, 2001 attacks was welcomed by a number of parties, including the families of people who died on September 11. However, some would like to see a trial in New York and not in Gitmo. The Sun found some different reactions. Jim Riches a fire chief whose son died in the World Trade Center, said, "[T]hese people should be brought......

The Pentagon has charged six men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks and will seek the death penalty (the Pentagon's terse press release was titled "Defense Department Seeks Death Penalty for Six Guantanamo Bay Detainees"). These would be "the first trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system." The defendants will see the evidence and will have similar rights as U.S. soldiers accused of crimes. As for whether evidence and confessions gained through methods,......

The city has been crowing about this year's low murder rate since last week, when officials announced it was likely to be under 500 murders. Currently, the murder rate is 492 as of Sunday night (we're not sure if that number includes the three men killed in Brooklyn); this year's murder rate would be the lowest since 1963, the first year with reliable data and a year that saw 548 killings. The NY Times examines......

In Following the Equator, Mark Twain wrote:“In America the ice-storm is an event. And it is not an event which one is careless about. When it comes, the news flies from room to room in the house, there are bangings on the doors, and shoutings, ‘The ice-storm! the ice-storm!’ and even the laziest sleepers throw off the covers and join the rush for the windows.” Yesterday, we had the latter day equivalent, with television......

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke today, giving a speech and sort of answers some of questions posed by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and School of International and Public Affairs Dean John Coatsworth. We're sure video and transcripts will come shortly, but in the meant time, The Bwog, New York, and City Room have been liveblogging the speech. Here's a sample of questions posed, via the City Room:In response to a question about the treatment......

In late November 2005, police officer Dillon Stewart and his partner, Paul Lipka, stopped a 1990 Infiniti for a traffic violation (driving with dealer plates) in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. One of the men inside fired five bullets into the unmarked police car (Stewart and Lipka were uniformed), and Stewart (pictured) and Lipka proceeded to chase the car. But then Stewart realized that he had been shot -- the bullet had missed his bulletproof vest by......

In May of 2000, five employees of a Wendy's in Flushing were killed in the basement, while two others were injured. John Taylor and Craig Godineaux were arrested and charged with the murders. While Godineaux pleaded guilty to the crimes and is serving a life sentence without parole, Taylor, a former Wendy's employee, was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2002. In the years since Taylor's sentence, the NY State Court of Appeals ruled,......

Yesterday, the three men charged with first-degree murder of police officer Russel Timoshenko all pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn court. However, Dexter Bostick, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, who were also charged with a number of other crimes related to the July 9 traffic stop shooting, did not ask for bail. The Post and Daily News had the varying statements the men gave investigators:Woods, 29, told detectives "I ain't going to jail for something I......

One of the saddest images from yesterday were the parents of slain police officer Russel Timoshenko, weeping at Brooklyn criminal court after the arraignment of the three men accused of Timoshenko's murder. The suspects, Dexter Bostic, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, were arraigned last week on charges including attempted murder. It is believed that Bostic, firing from the front passenger seat, shot 23-year-old Timoshenko in the face and neck during a July 9 traffic stop......

Twenty-three-year-old police officer Russel Timoshenko died yesterday at King County Hospital, five days after being shot twice in the face during a Monday traffic stop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Doctors took him off life support after finding he had no brain activity yesterday afternoon. KCH director of trauma service and surgical critical care, Dr. Robert Kurtz, was visibly upset as he reported Timoshenko's death. From Newsday:Kurtz, who choked up, said the case "affected us emotionally......

Today, Dexter Bostick and Robert Ellis will be arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges related to the Monday shooting of two police officers during a traffic stop. Bostick and Ellis had fled NYC after the shooting, only to be captured days later in Pennsylvania. Yesterday, they were extradited from Pennsylvania, and lines of police officers watched them as they were escorted to and from the 71st Precinct in Brooklyn. Police officers are expected......

"People create because they feel what everyone else is thinking." In 1964, Tommy Trantino was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of two New Jersey police officers. In 1971, the death penalty was over turned and Trantino was sentenced to life in prison. During that time, Trantino wrote to Leonard Weinglass, the lawyer who defended the Chicago Seven, which included social and political activist Abbie Hoffman. Through Hoffman, Trantino's letters were seen by......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A Large Sink Hole at 187th Pl. and Jamaica Ave. in Queens, a Serious Multi-Vehicle Accident on 125th and Lenox Ave. in Manhattan, and Bank Robbery at 178th St. and Hillside Ave. in Queens. Podpeople are invading the city! 800 podcasters to descend upon Manhattan for PodCampNYC. Queens DA Richard Brown is leading the charge to bring the death penalty back to New York State. The Federal Reserve Bank......

There's a big NY Times story about the NYPD's preparation before the 2004 Republican National Convention: The police started spying on protesters a year before the actual convention. For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and......

The drug dealer Kenneth McGriff, who was convicted last year for killing two rivals, was sentenced to life in prison "without the possibility of release" in federal court yesterday. McGriff led a violent drug crew, the Supreme Team, in the 1980s and then became a hip-hop world fixture, working with Murder Inc. While prosecutors were unable to prove that McGriff laundered money through Murder Inc., they did try to convince jurors that he deserved death......

Convicted cop killer Ronell Wilson angered the judge presiding over his trial when a warden told him Wilson broke the "shatterproof" windows in a prison visiting room. Wilson, who was sentenced to death for the murders of two undercover police detectives and is at the Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting formal sentencing, threw a chair at the windows when he found out a visit from his mother and sister would be "non-contact" (his previous visits had......

After two days of deliberations, a federal jury sentenced Ronell Wilson to death for the 2003 killings of undercover detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews. When the verdict was read, Wilson rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at Nemorin's widow Rose. This is the first death penalty sentence for a federal case in NY State in over 50 years. While family and friends of the deceased cheered, Wilson's younger brother shouted after......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an amputation on the Van Wyck, a jumper down in Coney Island, and an off-duty Corrections officer shot in Bed-Stuy. The Lakers may be in town, but Kobe can't play! Bryant is suspended for hitting Manu Ginobili on Sunday, but we think the Knicks will choke. For the first time in 12 years, the city is going to be giving out new Section-8 housing vouchers to non-emergency applicants. The......

In Brooklyn, drug dealer Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff is on trial for racketeering and his involvement in two murders. Closing arguments were made, but Federal Judge Frederic Block made his own memorable comments about the prosecution's desire to seek the death penalty: “Will you kindly advise Washington that in this judge’s opinion, there is no chance in the world there would be a death penalty verdict in this case? If I’m wrong, I will have egg......

A federal jury found Ronnell Wilson guilty of shooting two undercover detective in Staten Island three years ago. Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews were trying to buy illegal guns in a sting operation. Here is a description of the crime from the Post:Wilson and another man, Jessie Jacobus, had decided that they would rob Nemorin - although they realized he might be a cop - instead of selling him a gun. The two thugs......

Juan Franjul turned himself in for Saturday's sad hit-and-run death of 12 year old Jacob Colon. Franjul had gotten into an accident where he tried to get the other driver to accept money instead of reporting it to the police; when the driver refused, Franjul drove off, ran a red light and hit Colon in the Richmond Hill section of Queens. Franjul is a mechanic who had been returning the car to the owner. Colon's......

There are a couple articles about a year-old mob murder today, and why not? It happened at the Kreischer Mansion in the Charlestown section of Staten Island. Bonanno associate Robert McKelvey was killed by other Bonanno family associates over a "bad debt" after being lured to the house by the groundskeeper and mob associate Joseph "Joe Black" Young. The NY Times notes the crime is unusual because Young is black, as mob associates of color......

With alleged terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui awaiting his formal sentencing this morning, the focus is on how the jurors decided to give him life in jail over the death penalty. The NY Times has a helpful graphic showing the mitigating factors that led the jury its sentence: The biggest factors seemed to be that he had a terrible childhood, with two abusive parents, and that he seemed to be, at best, a fringe member of Al......

- Randy put together the great diagram above showing the areas of the Greenpoint Terminal Market damaged by the fire. - City landlords are looking to raise stabilized rents by 8%, blaming fuel costs - Nice one: If you're going to have someone drive expensive art from Florida to NYC, make sure he's not an ex-con who might drive away with the van - Police are looking for a man pretending to be a......

Zacarias Moussaoui, the man who allegedly would have hijacked a fifth plane on September 11, 2001, was sentenced to life in prison. Last month, a jury had okayed a death penalty for him, but after weeks of testimony from assorted witnesses - who included former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and victims' families for both the prosecution and defense - the jury decided that Moussaoui's punishment would be jail. The defense had been arguing that Moussaoui was......

Ah, there is nothing like a seemingly unhinged would-be terrorist taking the stand in his own death penalty trial. Zacarias Moussaoui testified during the sentencing part of his trial, and, like his first trip to the witness stand where he "confessed" to being one of hijackers planning the September 11 attacks, he gave plenty for the prosecution to savor. Like saying how happy he was that people died on September 11, mentioning that he......

The cockpit recording from United Flight 93 on September 11 was played in the courtroom of Zacarias Moussaoui's death penalty trial. The 31 minute tape details, as the Daily News puts it, "the charge toward the cockpit, yelps of pain, groans, crashing sounds and the panic of the hijackers as the Americans tried to shove their way in," as well as hijackers yelling "Sit down!" and someone saying, "I don't want to die." The hijackers......

Coroners have concluded that an NYPD detective ultimately died from his cleanup work at Ground Zero. James Zadroga's death is considered to be the first cleanup worker whose death is "directly related" to the World Trade Center's dust and debris (there have been a couple deaths of workers who have developed respiratory problems after working at the site). Zadroga's family is hoping that the NYPD will consider his death an "in the line of duty"......

The jurors listened to testimony from September 11 attack victims' families yesterday during the death penalty sentencing trial of Zacarais Moussaoui, a confessed conspirator in the plots. The families-turned-witnesses cried, and jurors themselves cried with them. US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema did note that Moussaoui's lawyers feel the prosecution's presentation was overly dramatic, leading her to limit prosecution witnesses to five photographs each. A wrenching tape of Melissa Doi, who worked in the south......