Cyclist hit on Essex
A bicycle rider was struck by a car and injured Monday night May 17 at the corner of Essex and Rivington Sts. The victim, identified only as male, was taken to Bellevue Hospital with head injuries. There was no information by press time on Wednesday on the condition of the victim. Police questioned a man and a woman near a black SUV with a smashed windshield and next to a bike on Essex St. just north of Rivington St., according to witnesses. Police, however, had not filed any charges in connection with the accident by press time.
A recent report by the civic group, Transportation Alternatives, said the area is extremely dangerous. The Essex-Delancey intersection had 119 crashes between cars and pedestrians or cyclists between 1998 and 2008, the report said.
On April 27 Harry Wieder, a member of Community Board 3 and an activist on issues affecting gay and disabled people was killed when hit by a cab at Essex near Houston St. as he was leaving a community board meeting.
Recently the Department of Transportation painted bicycle lanes on Rivington St. and on Stanton St. to protect cyclists from the heavy auto traffic of Delancey St.
Trio robbery charge
Three Queens residents, Christopher Dabkowski, 20, Kamil Dabkowski, 21 and Przemyslaw Zebrowski, 22, were arrested around 1 a.m. Sun., May 16 for robbing three victims at knifepoint on John St. between Broadway and Nassau St.
The three suspects, with an unapprehended accomplice, took the wallets and money from two victims. When a witness tried to phone police, they snatched the phone from his hand, punched and kicked him and then robbed him. The three suspects were being held in lieu of $5,000 bail or $10,000 bond pending a May 21 court appearance.
Bomb threats
Charles Cardi, 47, was arrested Mon., May 10 on the Lower East Side and charged with making five 911 false bomb threats to the Staten Island Ferry, Police Headquarters and to Wall St.
The calls between 5:30 p.m. and 8:28 p.m. were made from pay phones at 64 Avenue B, 45 Orchard St., 68 Orchard St. and 86 Orchard St.
Officers found Cardi, a homeless man, slightly drunk and wheeling a cart, who indicated “he made the calls.” The first call at 5:30 p.m. from a payphone at 64 Avenue B said a bomb with C4 explosives would go off at One Police Plaza in 20 minutes. At 8:14 p.m. someone identifying himself as “Muhammad” called from a payphone at 45 Orchard St. Subsequent calls threatened explosions on a ferry and on Wall St.
The terminals in Manhattan and at St. George, Staten Island, were closed briefly around 8:50 p.m. for police sweeps. The upper level of the Whitehall terminal at South Ferry was evacuated and passengers were directed to board from the lower level, but authorities said there were no delays in service. A canvass of Wall St. and Police Plaza did not turn up anything suspicious, police said.
Cardi was taken to the Seventh Precinct where he told police “Middle Easterners are taking jobs from Americans, that he did not like blacks, gays and lesbians and that America should blow up and start all over again,” according to the complaint filed by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
He is charged with multiple counts of falsely reporting incidents in the first, second and third degrees and five counts of making a terroristic threat.
On Thursday night, May 13, a car with two gasoline canisters in the back was reported parked in front of the Con Edison building at 4 Irving Pl. at 14th St., prompting police to shut the street down and evacuate nearby buildings for an hour and a half.
The suspected Oldsmobile Cutlass belonged to a New Jersey man who mows lawns for a living and was at a concert at Irving Plaza nearby; the gasoline canisters were for the man’s power mower, police said. The emergency alert was cancelled at 12:45 a.m. Friday.
Chinatown burglary
A ringing burglar alarm from a furrier shop at 41 Elizabeth St. between Canal and Hester Sts. at 4 a.m. Thurs., May 13, alerted police. They arrested Kenneth Moore, 49, who was fleeing with six fur coats valued at $8,000. Moore, a Brooklyn resident, was charged with grand larceny and possession of stolen property.
Beer theft
An employee of the Whole Foods store at 95 E. Houston St. near Mulberry St. stopped a man shortly after midnight Thurs., May 13 fleeing from the store with a bottle of premium beer that he had not paid for. Luis Hernandez, 32, was charged with larceny.
Teens stabbed
Police were called to the corner of Hester and Eldridge Sts. on Wednesday afternoon May 12 about a brawl among teenagers. Two boys, described as between 14 and 15, were treated by an Emergency Medical Service team for stab wounds and taken to a hospital in stable condition. One youth, whose name was not revealed because of his age, was arrested.
