City Hall’s smoke-filled room
Mayor Bloomberg is not on the best of terms with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, but sometimes where there’s smoke, there is no fire. City Hall was evacuated briefly Tuesday night during Stringer’s Italian heritage event when a fan motor in the building over-heated. A Stringer spokesperson said the event was held up for a few minutes, but continued after the fire department arrived to control the smoke. A fire department spokesperson said the investigation is closed.
Subway holdups
A man wielding a handgun robbed two women in succession at two Downtown subway stations on Friday morning Oct. 19, police said. The robber, described as a black man in his 20s, forced a woman to hand over an unspecified amount of cash at 9:30 a.m. in the Park Place station of the I.R.T. line. A half-hour later the robber pointed the gun at a woman in the Chambers St. (1,2, 3) station one stop north of Park Place and got away with an unspecified amount of money, police said.
Noose found
Postal workers at 90 Church St. noticed a hangman’s noose on a lamppost above the sidewalk scaffolding around the building at about 1 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 11, police said. Maintenance employees took the noose down and later that day turned it over to detectives from the police hate-crimes unit.
Mayor’s guard jumped
Mayor Bloomberg was on the Lexington Ave. line platform in the Fulton St. station in Lower Manhattan with some aides and N.Y.P.D. detectives at 1:20 p.m. Mon., Oct. 22 on his way to City Hall when a disheveled man jumped on a uniformed transit officer who was with the mayor’s party, police said.
Bloomberg was not the target of the attack and was unhurt. The transit officer, Frank Zaluk, 37, sustained minor arm and back injury and a detective, Thomas J. Healy, 37, sustained a minor back injury when he went to Zaluk’s aid.
Glen Cox, 30, of Brooklyn, was being held Tuesday pending arraignment, according to the district attorney. Zaluk had asked him to step aside as he was rushing onto a train that just pulled into the station when he grappled with the officer and both fell on a pile of construction debris on the platform, according to police.
Cox was taken to Bellevue and was still under observation on Wednesday afternoon.
Masked gunman
A man described as about 20 years old and wearing a bandana across his face held a gun to the attendant of a grocery store on Broome and Allen Sts. on Sunday morning, Oct. 14 and forced him to hand over an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. The robber fired a shot when a witness in the store tried to stop him, but no one was hit, police said.
Soho holdup
A man pulled a handgun on a woman attending a convenience store on Prince and Mulberry Sts. at 6:30 p.m. Wed., Oct. 17 and demanded money, police said. He fled after she handed over an undisclosed amount of cash.
D.O.A. in station
Transit employees found the body of a man about 50 in an isolated section of a subway track near the Delancey-Essex St. station at 1 a.m. Tues., Oct. 23. The victim’s feet were touching the third rail, and police said no criminality was suspected. The victim had not been identified by Wednesday afternoon, police said.
— Albert Amateau
