Results tagged “farrockaway”

Well, here's surveillance video of armed thugs running amok in a Far Rockaway jewelry store on November 28th, in broad daylight. After locking two employees in a bathroom, the thieves handcuffed a third employee, who tries to casually walk away at the 50 second mark. He almost makes it out the door, but is dragged back in and thrown to the floor. A second escape is attempted but quickly thwarted by a hooded perp disguised as a Jawa. Honestly, this employee is lucky he wasn't [SPOILER!] killed.

One of the undercover cops involved in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old who was pointing a gun at officers fired eight rounds, according to the Post. Three officers contributed to the 15-bullet salvo (up from 14 in yesterday's papers) that left Dashawn Vasconcellos with 11 separate wounds, three to the back, one to the chest, one to the right arm and the rest to the legs. The shooting occurred after the teen fled from police who spotted him leaving a park after hours and allegedly raised a gun at officers. While Vasconcellos' friends and relatives have complained that officers responded with excessive force, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it was too early in the investigation to make a definitive call, but he stated: "On the surface, the shoot looks clean."

Police gunned down an 18-year-old in Far Rockaway when he pointed a 9mm handgun at officers. When four plainclothes cops approached Dashawn Vasconcellos and two other men as they were leaving Bayswater Park after-hours at around 11:30 pm, Vasconcellos fled. Officers pursued the teen to Bay 32nd Street near Beach Channel Drive when Vasconcellos allegedly spun around and aimed the handgun at police. "After repeated orders to drop his weapon," officers shot the teen in the torso and legs, a police source told the Daily News. Vasconcellos was pronounced dead about an hour later at Jamaica Hospital. According to NY1, the other two men were not arrested.

Brooklyn Heights construction worker Robert Keller appeared to be as dead when an out-of-control, drugged-up driver came heading straight for him at 60 mph while at his Far Rockaway work site last Friday. But his life was saved by Ossining's Michael Hudson, the flagman on his crew, who shoved Keller, took the blow of the speeding vehicle along with him and ended up losing a leg in the process. Hudson still has internal bleeding and has just been released from intensive care. Keller tells the Daily News his co-worker was his "guardian angel." Hudson's girlfriend said, "He looked awful, and I didn't know if he was going to make it. I didn't know if he would live to hear me say 'I love you' one last time." As for the woman who admitted to cops that she had smoked crack and was arguing with her passenger before plowing into the construction site near JFK, she is in jail with bail set at $250,000. Yolanda Silvera of Long Island has been charged with second-degree assault, second-degree vehicular assault, second degree reckless endangerment, DWI and other violations.

A 19-year-old man from The Bronx drowned in Far Rockaway yesterday where he and his girlfriend had been enjoying a day at the beach. 19-year-old Daniel O'Neil swam outside the designated area near the East Rockaway Inlet near Beach 25th Street around 3 p.m. Lifeguards eventually pulled O'Neil out and and FDNY EMTs took him to St. John's Episcopal Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later. O'Neil had just graduated from Mount St. Michael High School and volunteered in the rectory of Sacred Heart Church in Mount Vernon. He was set to attend John Jay College in the fall and hoped to one day be a lawyer. His aunt told the News, "He was a young kid who wanted to prove to himself that he was a young man. He was full of life, full of youth." Lifeguards say that there has been a strong riptide over the last two weekends, forcing an unusually high number of swimmers to be pulled out of the water. The National Weather Service has tips here on what to do if you are caught in rip currents.

     

Far Rockaway has gotten a Mad Max treatment over the years. Nate Kensinger has some amazing shots of the eastern edge of Queens, which "was once a flourishing summer community. Today, its landscape is like the half-abandoned city of Buffalo, with vast empty lots and a large number of abandoned homes. In 2008, according to the NY Times, the Far Rockaway's city council representative called his district 'ground zero' of the subprime mortgage crisis." It's hard to picture the beach bungalows before they were boarded up, in their old time glory when the area was dubbed The New Hamptons. Maybe the Beachside Bungalow Preservation Association can bring them back to life.

Two children are recovering from gunshot wounds after being hit by stray bullets during separate incidents Saturday night. On President Street in Crown Heights, 10-year-old Denia Kearse (pictured) was enjoying a block party when shots rang out around 8 p.m. Her aunt tells channel 7, "Everybody heard pop, pop, pop, and it sounded like it was blocks away. And then, the next thing you know, my niece is bleeding." The stray bullet tore across her chest, chipping her collar bone, and passed dangerously close to her neck. According to the Daily News, she's in Kings County Hospital and expected to recover. Later that night in Far Rockaway, an 8-year-old boy was grazed in the head by a stray bullet as he got out of a car with his aunt around 10:30 p.m. The unidentified victim is in critical condition, and police are still looking for suspects in both shootings.

Police believed that 17-year-old Karon Lenihan shot another teen over a long-held grudge. Patrick Hernandez, a Far Rockaway High graduate who was headed to SUNY Cortland, had been walking back from cleaning up a local beach on Thursday morning when Lenihan allegedly jumped out of a car and shot Hernandez in the chest. While the nature of Lenihan's grudge against Hernandez is unclear, the victim's grandmother raged to the Daily News, "I'd like to kill [Lenihan] my goddamn self...My heart is destroyed. You want to fight him? Fight him fist by fist. Be a man."

A 15-year-old girl who was shot in the head yesterday died from her injuries. No arrests have been made in the shooting, but Brandon Bethea was shot shortly before midnight on Redfern Ave. in Queens. She was taken to St. Johns Hospital, but did not survive. Bethea had returned to her old neighborhood in Far Rockaway in order to find a dress for her junior prom, when she was shot. The girl seems to have been a random victim after a man opened fire on a crowd in the street. One resident was despondent about the senseless violence. "All these young babies are dying over nothing."

While there's video evidence Brooklyn's Kensington post office could be the worst post office in the city, Far Rockaway's post office could give it a run for the money. Representative Gregory Meeks complained to the Daily News, "There is so much incompetence and lack of supervision [there]. I'm hearing from a lot of seniors who don't get their Social Security checks on time. A lot of people aren't getting their bills."

The sports trainer who claimed he gave steroids to Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite and other baseball players hit two vehicles, including a city bus, yesterday. McNamee apparently blacked out.

Early Saturday morning around 2 a.m., an undercover police officer shot and killed a 22-year-old Queens man after he pointed a gun at him and another officer. Earlier in the night, Ronnie Smalls had run from police when they approached him because they recognized him as a known criminal--he'd been arrested nine times before--and suspected he was carrying a gun. When they saw Smalls a second time, he ran again. According to the Associated Press account, with two undercover police chasing on foot and the third giving chase in a car, the officer in the car said he saw the suspect pull his gun and point it at the pursuing officers. At that point, Smalls either tripped or was tackled and the closest pursuing officer fired four shots at Smalls as they struggled on the ground.

Slowpokes and procrastinators beware: Late fees from overdue library books in New York could be costing you points off your credit score. The New York Times has an article today that describes how the The New York Public Library and the Queens Public Library have been using a private company named Unique Management Services, which is a collections agency that library late fines are referred to when not paid by book borrowers. One rabbi in Far Rockaway found this out when he tried to apply for a mortgage!

Last week Gothamist was in San Francisco for the third time this year. It was sunny and warm and we took an odd pleasure in watching the natives hustle about wearing wool hats and gloves. In our three trips to the west coast we managed to avoid the Valentine's Day snow storm, the April nor'easter and resultant flooding, and last week's snowy/icy/rainy pair of storms. We will leave it to our readers to decide if our timing was mere coincidence or meteorological perspicacity on our part.

Newsday reports that emergency track work at West 4th Street will be causing delays on the A, E, D and F lines. Apparently Brooklyn-bound F train will be running on the E between 36th Street Station in Queens and 42nd Street Times Square, and then the F will run on the A between Times Square and Jay Street-Borough Hall. And some other Brooklyn-bound F trains will "run on the D line from 47th-50th Street-Rockefeller Center...

It was originally named the 8th Avenue Subway, but the 'A' train turns 75 today, having opened September 10th, 1932. Officials are holding a ceremony at the line's northernmost station––Inwood/207th St.––and will be running six antique railcars from the 1930s during the day to commemorate the event. This is more than the Eighth Ave. Subway garnered on its opening day: Back in 1932, just before midnight, transit workers simply dropped chains blocking access to turnstiles up and down the line and riders were free to pay the five cent fare at any of the original 28 stations between 207th St. and Chambers St., a total distance of 12 miles.

A 50-year-old NJ resident was killed by a drunk driver early yesterday morning in Ozone Park, Queens. The Post reports that Teresa Mankarious, who was driving back from Long Island with her fiance, had gotten out of her car at the Esquire Diner to walk their dog. While on the sidewalk, a car driven by 23-year-old Woodhaven resident Michael Barlow was suddenly on the sidewalk and hit her, throwing her 50 feet. She was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital.

We always wonder how the people fishing at various points in the city do, and now we know that there are some huge fish biting off the shores. Reader Ryan Eugene Kelley sent us this anecdote and photographs from his friend, Rodney Calhoun:

Bed Stuy resident Percy, seen here riding a Queens bound G train to Bedford Nostrand, battled his giant 43 lb striped bass all morning. Wilson caught the giant fish behind a school in Far Rockaway using clams for bait. "They're smart you see, all morning they were just sucking the bait, not really striking it you know". But eventually Wilson got the strike he'd been looking for, and now he and his family will be eating striped bass for weeks to come. "I'm gonna fillet it up soon as I get home, then I'm gonna take a nap, that fish wore me out."

MOVIE: One Ring Zero is a lit-rock fans dream come true. The band features Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem, Dave Eggers and Margaret Atwood’s lyrics set to the music of trumpets, theremins, claviolas, and metallophones. Director Joe Pacheco captured the band on film and presents it now as a documentary, As Smart As They Are: The Author Project. Here's a song/video with lyrics by Michael Chabon:

Last night, an apartment building in Far Rockaway caught fire, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate their homes in the cold weather. By the time firefighters arrived to Neilson Street, flames were already shooting through the windows. The fire spread to the house next door, and the Long Island Power Authority and Con Ed shut off the power to area customers in order to protect firefighters.

The new M&M's World store planned for Times Square won't be lacking for future employees. The Mars Retail Group's ad that proclaimed "on the spot hiring" as well as a $10.75 hourly wage (not to mention benefits) attracted thousands of people, causing a huge crowd on Eighth Avenue at 35th Street. The company advertised that 65 full-time and 135 part-time jobs would be available.

Sixteen year old Schermiela Palmer had been running laps at Beach Channel High School in Far Rockaway collapsed on the track and later died at a hospital. One student told the Post, "We were running around. We did two laps, I think, and I looked at her and she looked at me and she fell." Her family is stunned and says she had no known health problems, though her mother said she complained because students were "pushed" in gym class. One of her friends told the Post that since Palmer failed gym last year, she was wanted to try hard this year.

Today's City section that brings up another problem with the development boom that has covered our fair city the past few years: Where to put the local old folk. Specifically where to put their nursing homes.

It's been two years since the MTA tried to propose a ban on subway photography and it's been over a year since the MTA and NYPD decided not to impose a ban. And it's been five months since the MTA said they would work on making sure police officers wouldn't harrass photographs for taking photographs in subway and train stations. And yet... reader Jarid emailed us about getting stopped by a police after taking photographs on a subway on Monday.

Yesterday (8/14), at 8:00 a.m., I was stopped at removed from an A train by the NYPD at the Broadway-Nassau station for... taking photos. I was detained for a solid 15-20 minutes on the platform while being questioned repeatedly, made to turn over ID (including his asking why I was carrying a Massachusetts State ID -- I'm a student studying at Columbia), had to give over all sorts of personal information because, in the words of the cop, I had been "taken off a train," and then, probably to scare the hell out of me, the cop took my camera and placed it in his uniform chest pocket. He then read me the terrorism riot-act, so to speak, telling me I was frightening numerous passengers on the train who subsequently complained by taking photos, told me I was taking videos (which I was not -- I've never used the video feature of my camera) of sensitive areas (specifically tunnels -- which, again, I was not), and told me that similar matters can be turned over to the FBI for further investigation.

Continue reading "Subway Photography is Still in Question"

With all this global climate chaos, it almost seemed weird that summer arrived perfectly on schedule this year. The first truly hot, sticky, muggy days of the year came over Memorial Day weekend the way the lord intended when He created barbeques, day games, and ice cream trucks. And while summer means boiling apartments and gushing fire hydrants in the more densely populated parts of New York, it means sun tan lotion, body surfing, and the 101 Deli in the best corner of Queens.

First off, two sad pieces of news:

Molly Crabapple, Artist, Model, Burlesque Performer

get to the opposite tracks while still in the station. And in our experience in stations, when we've entered the wrong side, the subway clerks have been very nice and let us get in the other side (they might check your Metrocard, to see that you've swiped into the station, but still, it's nice). Either way, walking across the tracks is really not a good idea. [Via Candice at kittypower]

Sam Seder, Director / Writer / Comedian / Co-Host, "The Majority Report"

Reverend Billy, Street Preacher, The Church of Stop Shopping