Arrest rape suspect
Police arrested Donre Richardson, 19, of Brooklyn on Mon. Jan. 16 in connection with the Jan. 11 robbery, rape and unlawful imprisonment of a woman in her Village apartment.
The victim, 21, told police she was returning to her W. 10th St. apartment at about 4 a.m. Wed. Jan. 11 when a man armed with a handgun came up behind her and demanded money. She surrendered about $40 dollars, but he forced his way into the apartment, sexually attacked and sodomized her, and held her in the apartment for more than three hours before fleeing.
The victim reported the attack in person at the Sixth Precinct police station near her home and was taken to St. Vincent’s hospital. Police on Jan. 13 issued a sketch of the suspect based on a description by the victim.
Richardson was scheduled for arraignment on Jan. 17.
Murder-suspect suicide
The Washington Heights high school student charged in the Dec. 27 murder of a 45-year-old masseur who was found in a burning Chelsea apartment hanged himself in a holding pen in the Criminal Court building on Friday afternoon, Jan. 13.
The student, Jose R. Taveras, 17, was found by a Department of Correction officer at 3:15 p.m. with one end of his shirt tied around his neck and the other end tied to the cell’s bars. He hanged himself by slumping forward while sitting on a bench, a correction spokesperson said. Taveras had been in the cell with others waiting transportation back to Rikers Island and was the last one to be transported, the spokesperson said. He had been listed as a “mental observation inmate” but was not on suicide watch and did not require constant supervision. A correction officer had seen Taveras alive shortly after 3 p.m., the spokesperson said.
Taveras, declared dead at the scene, had been in court at 100 Centre St. for a pretrial proceeding in the second-degree murder of Scholmy Rejwan, an Israeli immigrant who worked as a waiter and gave erotic massages to men in his third-floor apartment at 228 W. 18th St.
Rejwan’s body, with hands and feet tied with electrical cord, had been doused with a flammable liquid and set afire, apparently to conceal the murder, according to police. The medical examiner’s office found that Rejwan died of strangulation.
Taveras, 17, a junior at Manhattan Bridges High School, at 525 W. 50th St., was arrested Jan. 8. He came to the Chelsea apartment in response to a newspaper advertisement and told his parents that there was a third person in the room, a Colombian, who did the strangling and set the body afire, according to articles in the Daily News and the Post.
Police said on Tues. Jan. 17 that Taveras was the only suspect arrested but acknowledged that the case was still under investigation.
Soho snatch
A man took his wallet out of the back pocket of his trousers when he was at the northeast corner of Grand St. and Sixth Ave. at 12:21 a.m. on Sun. Jan. 8 and lost it when a passing thief snatched it from his hand and fled, police said. The victim lost $40 in cash and credit cards but he cancelled his cards and there were no unauthorized charges, police said.
Sneaker shop grab
A woman shopping at the Puma shop at 521 Broadway just south of Spring St. at 5:10 p.m. Monday Jan. 9 was trying on a pair of sneakers and when she got up to look in a mirror, a thief grabbed the bag that she had placed next to her seat and fled, police said. The bag contained a cell phone, wallet, credit cards, an undisclosed amount of cash and a driver’s license issued in the Netherlands.
Albert Amateau
