Volume 17 • Issue 6 | July 2 – 8, 2004
Police Blotter
Bridge shooting suicide
A man who defied the orders of police to drop the 9-mm. handgun he was wielding on the walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge shot himself to death Thursday morning, June 24, police said.
The incident, which began around 10 a.m., occurred after the victim, identified only as a 24-year-old Mexican immigrant, fired one or two shots into the air, causing panic among pedestrians crossing the bridge. Police from the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn responded along with anti-terrorist officers and a police helicopter.
Police repeatedly warned pedestrians to get down while ordering the victim to drop his gun. But he sat down on the wooden walkway, turned the gun to his chest and fired. He was taken to NYU Downtown Hospital where he later died. Police said July 1 that they were still withholding the victim’s name pending notification of his family in Mexico.
Subway shooting
A crazed man who picked a fight with a fellow passenger on a southbound No. 5 train shortly before 4 p.m. on Mon. June 28 followed him into the Wall St. station, fired a small caliber handgun at him and missed, police said.
The suspect, described as a black man in his 30s, 5 ft. 7 in., 175 lbs, wearing blue and white shorts, shirt and hat, fled out of the station onto Broadway and Wall St. and escaped, police said.
It was the latest subway station incident in recent days. On June 20 police chased a robbery suspect into the tunnel of the Chambers St. station on West Broadway and fatally shot him when he charged an officer. On June 22 a man was shot to death by two suspects on the No. 1 train as they rode into the 23rd St. station. On June 23, a Brooklyn woman who fainted and fell onto the tracks of the 4,5,6 Brooklyn Bridge station was killed when a train pulled in. On June 1, a woman was shot in the shoulder as her train pulled into the Times Sq. station.
Fatal Bowery accident
An elderly woman crossing Bowery at Broome St. at 6:30 p.m. Wed., June 30 was struck by a car and died at Bellevue an hour later, police said. The driver was not arrested but was issued a summons for failing to exercise due caution. Police withheld the victim’s name pending family notification.
Bias assault
A boy, 16, was beaten by two teenagers who made anti-white remarks to him at 6:30 p.m. Tues. June 20 in an elevator at 525 F.D.R. Dr. near Delancey St. in the Baruch Houses, police said. The suspects, described only a black teenage boys, held the victim in the elevator beyond his floor, punched and kicked him and fled, police said. The victim refused medical attention.
—Albert Amateau
WWW Downtown Express
