Fatal crash on Delancey
A Lower East Side man was struck and killed by a car while crossing Delancey St. at Essex St. at 4:55 a.m. Mon., April 12, police said. The 2003 Mazda was traveling west on Delancey when it hit the victim, Hector Vera, 45, of 312 Delancey St. He was pronounced dead at the scene by E.M.S. The driver of the car remained at the scene and police do not suspect any criminality. Residents of the neighborhood said they were offended that the body remained at the scene under a sheet as late as 7:30 a.m. The car, with evidence of blood and its windshield smashed, also remained at the scene until evening, witnesses said.
Asians targeted
in assaults
Three teenagers, two girls, 15 and 12, and a boy, 15, were charged April 9 with hate-crime assaults on five Asian women in the Lower East Side between March 31 and April 5.
The victims, between the ages of 50 and 71, were attacked in or near housing projects and sustained cuts and bruises.
One victim, 50, was assaulted at 1:20 a.m. Wed., March 31 in the lobby of 90 Pitt St. in the Gompers Houses. A 60-year-old victim was assaulted at 9:20 p.m. the same day at 577 FDR Dr. in the Baruch Houses. A surveillance tape from that night shows two girls and a boy entering a building while two boys waited outside.
On Sat., April 3, the suspects assaulted a woman, 71, opposite 120 Baruch Dr. in the Baruch Houses at about 6:40 p.m. At 12:30 p.m. on Sun., April 4, a victim, 66, was assaulted in the lobby of 95 Baruch Dr. in the Baruch Houses. At 11 p.m. Mon., April 5, a victim, 68, was assaulted on the sidewalk in front of 247 E. Broadway at Montgomery St.
Names of the suspects, who were escorted by their parents, were not disclosed because of their ages. Elected officials including Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilmembers Margaret Chin, Rosie Mendez, Peter Koo, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, state Sen. Daniel Squadron and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, told a news conference on Friday that violence and intolerance would not be tolerated. Quinn said she was especially saddened because the day before she was in Staten Island protesting an April 5 hate attack against a Mexican immigrant who was beaten and robbed. Quinn said she believed that racial slurs were used in the Lower East Side attacks.
Body found
Police are investigating the death of Alejandro Bulaevsky, 26, whose body was found around 5:20 p.m. Mon., April 12 in his apartment at 90 West St. dressed in a knee-length latex suit, with a gas mask over his face and his hands handcuffed behind his back.
Bulaevsky, reportedly a successful lighting designer who worked most recently on Tamarind Tribeca restaurant, 99 Hudson St., was last seen on a surveillance tape entering his residence alone at 8 p.m. on Sunday. A building employee responded to calls from family and friends who tried to phone the victim when he did not show up on Monday to his office at Lumen Architecture, opened Bulaevsky’s apartment. The body was lying on the kitchen floor with no signs of trauma and the apartment had no signs of burglary, according to reports. A large safe, which police brought to the First Precinct station and opened, contained nearly $30,000 in neatly wrapped bills. The Medical Examiners office is investigating the cause of death.
W.T.C. plea
Emmanuel Reyes, 25, charged on March 15 with stealing more than $40,000 from the Tribute WTC Visitors Center at 120 Liberty St. where he was assistant manager of the 9/11 museum, tour and education center between August and February, pleaded not guilty Wed., April 7. When he was arrested in March he told prosecutors that he stole the money from the visitors center to pay loan sharks money he had borrowed for his mother’s funeral. He was freed on $5,000 bail pending a June 2 court appearance.
Bar burglary
Police arrested Randolph Maxwell, 46, on Thurs., April 8 and charged him with the 5:20 p.m. burglary of Ulysses Folk bar. An employee confronted the suspect who was pushing a hand truck with an electronic keyboard toward an elevator on the fourth floor of the bar at 95 Pearl St. near Old Slip, police said. The suspect threatened the employee with a screwdriver and fled down to the first floor where he menaced another employee but was soon apprehended, according to police.
— Albert Amateau
