Arrests in student death
Four teenagers were arrested for murder last week in connection with the death of a New York University junior who was struck by a car on the night of April 1 as he was crossing 125th St. while running from a robbery attempt, police said.
The victim, Broderick John Hehman, 20, died in Harlem Hospital on April 5 of head injuries and the incident was ruled a homicide because the death occurred during an attempted robbery.
The death was being investigated last week as a bias crime after a witness told police he had heard one of the suspects, who were all black or Latino, say, “Get the white boy.” But police on April 10 said the incident was “definitely motivated by economics, not race.”
Two of the suspects are 15 years old, Hasson Mayfiled, of 2131 Madison Ave., and Andre Johnson, of 2184 Lexington Ave., and two are 13 years old, Humberto Guzman, of 190 E. 130th St., and Denzell Fell, of 2 W. 120th St. All are charged with second-degree murder and are being prosecuted as adults, police said.
Hehman had come from a subway station and was walking to a friend’s house when five young teenagers attacked him at 125th St. and Park Ave. They demanded money and one of them punched the victim before he fled into the street where he was struck by a car. A fifth teenager is being sought. The driver of the car was not charged.
Chelsea burglars
Police are investigating a series of 17 burglaries in Chelsea between Seventh and Ninth Aves. from 16th to 25th Sts. between Feb. 25 and March 30, according to Captain Stephen Hughes, commanding officer of the 10th Precinct.
“We’re looking for two suspects who hit four-story walkups between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays when most people are at work,” Hughes said.
The thieves take jewelry, laptops, iPods, cameras and cash. Hughes said a witness described one of the suspects as wearing dreadlocks.
“We’ve lifted prints and we have a sample of DNA from skin left on a doorknob,” Hughes said.
Arrest burglar
An enforcement effort by 10th Precinct police seeking two burglars who have been targeting walkups in Chelsea since the end of February contributed to the April 7 arrest of an entirely different burglary suspect, police said. Jose Calles, 25, of Brooklyn, was arrested for breaking into apartments at 224 and 230 W. 16th St. after a police chase over several rooftops. The suspect made his way to the street and was apprehended at the top of the subway stairs on Eighth Ave. and 16th St., according to Captain Stephen Hughes, commander of the precinct.
A resident of W. 15th St. was looking out of his rear window when he saw someone coming out of a window and onto a fire escape at 230 W. 16th St. The witness phoned 911 and police spotted the suspect on the roof and began the pursuit. Laptops and handbags taken from apartments in the two buildings were found on the roof of 230 W. 16th St., Hughes said.
Phony plumbers
Two men who pose as plumbers or repairmen have been conning their way into the apartments of elderly residents in the Village, East Village, Chelsea, Soho and Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village and stealing whatever they can find, police said.
The thieves, described as white men in their late 20s, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, medium build, have victimized 13 people in the First, Sixth, Ninth, 10th and 13th Precincts from Feb. 5 to April 4, police said.
Once the pair are admitted to an apartment, one of them distracts the resident while the other searches the apartment for things that can be carried off, police said.
On Sun. Feb. 5 at 4 p.m., they hit an apartment on Thompson St., and on Thurs. Feb 23 they victimized a resident of Barrow St. In the Ninth Precinct, they hit apartments on Tuesday morning Feb. 7 on E. Sixth St., on Fri. March 3 on E. Third St. and on Sunday afternoon March 5 on St. Mark’s Pl.
In the 10th Precinct, they stole from an apartment on W. 15th St. on Feb. 7, and on March 26 they hit an apartment on Eighth Ave. an hour after they victimized a resident of Stuyvesant Town in the 13th Precinct. An apartment at Peter Cooper Village was the target on April 4. On Feb. 23, the thieves entered and stole from an apartment on E. 14th St. They struck a Broome St. apartment on the afternoon of March 26.
Albert Amateau
