Washington Square assault
Police arrested two men from North Carolina and charged them with second-degree assault in connection with an attack at about 5 p.m. Wed., April 4, on a 70-year-old man in Washington Square Park.
Scott Berry, 24, and Adam Mashburn, 22, both of Charlotte, N.C., are charged with punching the victim, Al Latimer, 70, and slashing his scalp with a razor. Police said Berry had a razor blade attached to a plastic handle in his pocket when he was arrested. The two suspects reportedly asked Latimer for marijuana and began beating him when he said he had none.
Latimer was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where 12 stitches were required to close the scalp wound, police said.
Berry and Mashburn were arraigned April 5 and held pending posting of $10,000 bail each.
Locked in basement
Police raided a store at 218 Centre St., near Grand St., at 5:35 p.m. Tues., April 3, for trademark infringement and discovered after a 911 phone call two hours later that a dozen people had been trapped in the basement and forgotten.
Three men and two women were initially arrested and charged with trademark infringement after police found dozens of plastic bags filled with handbags, sunglasses and wallets with counterfeit trademarks.
The 911 call later was seeking information about someone who had gone to the store earlier but had not returned. Police went back and found the people, including at least one younger than age 17, who said the shop owners had herded them into the basement when the raid began and told them to wait.
Three men, Wei Li, 35, of Queens; Hung Tong, 33, of Brooklyn; and Kwan Woo Pei, 28, of Brooklyn, were charged with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a person under the age of 17, as well as trademark infringement. The two women, Miao Liu, 44, and A Ying Xia, 35, were charged only with the trademark violation.
Li, Tong and Woo Pei are free on their own recognizance pending a July 11 court appearance. Liu and Xia are free on their own recognizance pending a July 16 court appearance.
Push-in robbers
A man and a woman followed a resident who was walking his dog and returning to his apartment at 215 W. 18th St. on Monday afternoon April 2, pushed their way in and choked the victim until he was unconscious, police said. When he regained consciousness he discovered that $3,100 was missing from his dresser. The woman was described as Hispanic, 5 feet 8 inches and weighing about 260 pounds and the man was described as Hispanic, 5 feet 8 inches, weighing 150 pounds.
Gang assault
A group of four or five men attacked a Brooklyn man as he was walking on the 400 block of W. 26th St. in the Elliott Chelsea Houses complex and left him unconscious on the sidewalk around 4 a.m. Sat., March 31, police said. The victim was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in stable condition. Police found a black leather jacket left at the scene with a postcard in the pocket addressed to Ignacio Ramirez of 426 W. 27th St. Police arrested Ramirez later and charged him with gang assault.
Elevator robber
A 69-year-old resident of a W. 27th St. building in the Elliot Chelsea Houses was waylaid in the elevator on Saturday morning March 31 by a man who said, “Give me your money, Pop,” cut his trousers and stole his wallet with $137, police said.
Attempted murder
A meeting in a Division St. restaurant on Sunday night April 1 that was supposed to resolve a dispute that had started two days earlier ended with two men stabbed and bleeding on the sidewalk, law enforcement officials said.
Police arrested Jian hui Lin, 42, on Wed., April 4, and charged him with two counts of attempted murder. Lin was arraigned on April 5 and was remanded without bail pending an April 12 court appearance.
The suspect and one of the victims had an angry argument on the Lower East Side on March 30, but separated without coming to blows, according to reports. A mutual friend subsequently arranged a meeting on April 1 with the three of them at a restaurant at 19 Division St. But the argument arose again after dinner and Lin pulled a knife, stabbed his adversary several times in the chest and once in the leg and then stabbed the mutual friend several times in the chest, according to the charges. One victim required emergency surgery, but neither life was threatened, according to police.
Hudson Square burglary
Burglars got into an apartment at 481 Greenwich St. on the northeast corner of Canal St. sometime on Friday night March 23 and made off with $5,000 in U.S. currency, foreign currency worth about $1,000, jewelry valued at $25,000 and a 20-inch, flat-screen television, police said. The thieves entered through an open penthouse door on the seventh floor and left by a sixth-floor fire escape, police said.
Bistro break-in
A burglar popped the lock off the front door of Georgione 508, a restaurant at 508 Greenwich St., around midnight on Tues. April 3, stole $500 from each of two cash registers and fled, police said.
Top burglary
A burglar got into an eighth-floor penthouse at 460 W. 20th St. from a nearby rooftop door on Friday morning March 30 and made off with a laptop computer and an iPod, police said.
Repel boarders
Vandals broke into the cruise boat Spirit of New Jersey berthed in the Chelsea Piers complex around 4:50 a.m. Mon., April 2, and tried to enter a sister vessel, Spirit of Hudson, police said. The invaders apparently fled when the alarm sounded and nothing was reported missing.
Pizza play gets violent
Horseplay between two employees of a pizzeria on Broadway at W. Eighth St. on Thursday morning March 29 escalated into a pushing and wrestling contest and ended when one of them picked up a knife, lunged and cut his adversary’s forearm, law enforcement officials said. A 911 call brought police who disarmed and arrested Kapllan Ukaj, 23, and charged him with assault, third-degree menacing and possession of a weapon. Ukaj was released on his own recognizance pending a June 11 court appearance
Truck gone
A driver who parked a rented truck loaded with computers and copying machines on Dominick St. between Hudson and Varick Sts. around 2 p.m. on Thurs., March 22, returned about 10:30 a.m. the following day and discovered it had been stolen, police said.
Lift and separate
A woman walked into the Soho Victoria’s Secret, at 565 Broadway, about 5:30 p.m. Sun., April 1, took 45 bras with a total value of $2,500 from a display case and walked out without paying for them, police said.
Car break-in
A driver who parked his car on Grand St. near Wooster St. around midnight on Sun., April 1, returned at 5:45 a.m. and found the rear window smashed and that a laptop computer that had been on the floor and an $800 religious figurine in the glove compartment had been stolen, police said.
Bag gone
A woman patron of Café Duke, at 545 Broadway, told police that she had hung her handbag on the back of her seat Sunday afternoon April 1 and discovered at 5:30 p.m. that someone had stolen it. The bag had $40, ID cards and credit cards. She later discovered that someone had made $1,075 in unauthorized credit card charges.
Albert Amateau
