Principal’s son killed
Sam Hindy, 27, the son of Ellen Foote, principal of I.S. 89 in Battery Park City, was killed while bicycling across the Manhattan Bridge shortly before midnight on Fri., Nov. 16.
Hindy, whose father is Stephen Hindy, founder of Brooklyn Brewery, was biking with a friend to the Hindy home in Brooklyn on the upper level of the bridge when his bike hit a concrete barrier, sending him over the handlebars and through a gap between lanes to the level below where he was hit by a car.
He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
I.S. 89 parent Michele Herman, the P.T.A.’s secretary, was on the verge of tears Monday. She said the whole school community is upset and the P.T.A. is planning to make a donation in Hindy’s name to Transportation Alternatives, a cycling advocacy group, and will send prepared meals to the family. They are also thinking of other ways to help.
Sam Hindy, who worked in Manhattan at Doubleclick, the Internet advertising agency, usually rode his bicycle home to Gowanus over the Brooklyn Bridge. But on Friday, he met a friend visiting from Boston, had some drinks with him and the two decided to return over the Manhattan Bridge, according to reports.
Construction blocked the bridge bike path and they took a traffic lane where cars began honking at them. The freak accident occurred when Hindy tried to turn around, according to reports.
The driver of the car that hit the victim was not charged.
Sam Hindy was born in Beirut, Lebanon, where he father, Stephen, was working at the time as an Associated Press correspondent. Stephen returned with his family to New York in the 1980s to work for Newsday and resigned in 1987 to found Brooklyn Brewery.
Sam Hindy went to public schools in Brooklyn and graduated from Northeastern University in Boston. In addition to his father and mother, a sister, Lily, United Nations correspondent for Associated Press, survives.
Tribeca sex abuse
Police are seeking a man who forced a girl, 12, into an elevator and down to the basement of a Walker St. building at 4:45 p.m. Tues., Nov. 13 where he exposed himself and forced the girl to touch him. The suspect was described as 6 ft., about 170 pounds, white or Hispanic, wearing black trousers and a black coat and speaking with an accent. After the incident he forced the girl back into the elevator with him and fled when it reached the ground floor, police said.
Subway heist
A man and a woman robbed a victim, 19, of his backpack, wallet and iPod on a southbound E train at 3:50 a.m. Mon., Oct. 29, police said. The thieves got off at the Spring St. Sixth Ave. station and fled with cash and various items with a total value of $2,325, police said.
Arrest in holdup series
Police on Thurs., Nov. 15 arrested Herbert Rodriguez, 35, of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in connection with a series of armed robberies over the past two months of stores from the Lower East Side and East Village to Soho and the West Village.
The robberies, previously reported in Downtown Express along with a surveillance camera image of the defendant, included a Nov. 9 holdup of a clothing store at 85 Kenmare St., a Nov. 7 liquor store robbery at 171 Elizabeth St. and a Nov. 5 robbery of a donut shop at 140 Delancey St.
Among at least 18 robberies, Rodriguez is also charged with the holdups of a beauty salon at 120 Thompson St., a furniture boutique at 49 Prince St. and a grocery at 87 Allen St. Rodriguez is being held pending a Nov. 21 court appearance.
Mugger arrests
Two men and a woman were arrested in Soho at 12:30 a.m. Sun., Nov. 4 after they pulled two strong-arm robberies, police said. The trio surrounded a victim, 25, on Greene St. between Grand and Broome Sts., forced him sit on a stoop while they searched him and made off with his cell phone and wallet. Four minutes later they grabbed a visitor, 59, from Ohio on Prince near Wooster St. and robbed him of $400 in cash. Police apprehended three suspects on Greene St. between Broome and Grand Sts. The three are James Williams, 18, of the Bronx, Marquis Chislom, 17, of Manhattan, and Shareen Wesseling, 17, of the Bronx.
Subway station robber
A man wearing a hooded sweatshirt attacked a victim, 23, from Queens, waiting on the No. 4 train platform at the Broadway Fulton St. station at 10 p.m. Fri., Nov. 9, knocked him to the ground and fled with his wallet with ID and $20 in cash, police said.
Bank job
A man walked into the Citibank branch at One Broadway at 11:10 a.m. Mon., Nov. 15, passed a note to a teller that said, “Give me your money and none of your staff will be hurt.” The teller surrendered $2,159 mostly in 10s and 20s, and the thief, described as a black man between 25 and 35, 6’4” and 180 pounds, fled from the Broadway entrance of the bank, police said.
Auto rage
A Brooklyn man told police that he had stopped at a red light at Mott and E. Houston Sts. at 4 a.m. Sun., Oct. 28 when a cab swerved in front of him, damaged his fender and then proceeded to Broadway and turned Downtown, with the victim following. The cab and the victim stopped at Howard St. where the victim got out and approached the cab but the cab hit him on the left leg as it drove off.
Subway assault
A Brooklyn man, 46, was standing on the subway platform at the Fulton St. station at 11 p.m. Sat., Nov. 3 when an assailant hit him over the head with a bat and fled with an accomplice, police said. No property was stolen and the victim was taken to Bellevue where he was treated and released.
Teen assault
A 15-year-old Brooklyn boy was walking in front of 75 Broadway at 3 p.m. Wed., Oct. 31 when a stranger demanded, “What are you looking at?” and punched him on the side of his face, police said. The blow fractured the right side of the victim’s jaw, police said.
Criminal trespass
A resident of 71 Columbia St. in the Samuel Gompers Houses was returning to his apartment at 10:43 p.m. Mon., Nov. 12 when he found the lock broken and an intruder who burst out of the door and tried to bite him, police said. The victim, 39, called police, who arrested Yvette Medina, 37. She pleaded guilty to second degree criminal trespass on Nov. 16 and was sentenced to time served.
Canal burglary
Burglars cut a gate and broke into the building at 357 Canal St. at Wooster St. sometime between 7 p.m. Wed. Nov. 14 and 8 a.m. Thurs. Nov. 15, broke a hole in a wall of a storage room of Perfume Touch and made off with perfume and watches valued at $37,000, police said.
— Albert Amateau
