WNBC reports that 66-year-old Nick Nowillo died after a confrontation with an attacker on Crescent Avenue in Long Island City. The 43-year-old attacker, who was arrested but not identified, allegedly hit Nowillo several times, including punching him so hard that he died at Astoria General Hospital later. Nowillo, who had been escorting a woman home because she felt the suspect "was...acting strangely" in the street, was a beloved figure in the neighborhood, nicknamed the "Mayor......

The four waterfalls installed by artist Olafur Eliasson and the Public Art fund at various spots on the East River are supposed be taken down on October 13th, but some Brooklyn residents fear that could be too late. In response to mounting concerns that spray from the salty, semi-polluted East River is blowing onto trees and slowly killing them, Judy Stanton, head of the Brooklyn Heights Association, is calling for the falls to be stopped......

The brother of the teenager who killed Lower East Side resident Nicole DuFresne in 2005 was killed as he attempted to rob a Staten Island resident on Jersey St., when his intended victim grabbed the pistol pointed at him and then shot Grant Fleming three times in the chest. Fleming was attempting a push-in robbery as the resident was entering his apartment. Grant Fleming's brother is Rudy Fleming, who responded to a robbery victim's inquiry......

On Wednesday night, 15-year-old Keyanna Jones was stabbed to death by when a dispute over line cutting at a Queens bus stop. Police say that 39-year-old Winston Alladin was angered because a woman and child allegedly cut in front of him to board a bus. One passenger said, per the Post, he "spat racial epithets at the woman and other African-American passengers." When a group of kids followed him off the bus, more people joined......

A man was "pulled into an argument over the NBA playoffs", eventually getting stabbed to death outside his cousin's house in Queens Village. Henry Frazier died at Mary Immaculate Hospital, and police believe Frazier may have started to altercation. The NY Times reports that Frazier "struck [Benjamin] Dunn on the side of the head with a bottle, and punched and kicked him." Dunn ran from the scene, so Frazier chased him, only for Dunn to......

NYC Parks & Recreation is offering a $500 reward to find out who wantonly chopped down a grove of Eastern Red Cedar trees in Inwood Hill Park. The trees were planted in 1996 and were thriving, until visitors to the park discovered that 35 of the Red Cedars had been hacked to death with something like an ax. Surrounding species of trees were left unharmed. Someone out there has a serious problem with Red Cedars.......

On Friday night, the Westchester police shot at a Mount Vernon police officer brandishing a gun in front of a county social services building. The policeman killed was Christopher Ridley, who was off-duty at the time; now it turns out he had been trying to break up a brawl. County lawmaker George Oros explained the gunfire erupted after Ridley got up from the ground with something in his hand outdrawn (he was 100 feet away.)......