East River Park DOA
Police responded to a report of an unconscious man on the ground near the service road of East River Park at E. Sixth St. shortly after 11 a.m. Mon., June 4. The victim, an unidentified Asian man in his 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene by an Emergency Medical Service team. The Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the cause of death.
Teen robbery arrest
A transit police officer arrested Michael Williams, 15, on Monday night, May 21, and charged him with being one of three youths who held up three women at gunpoint, one in the West Village, another on Washington Square West and yet another at W. 14th St. near Seventh Ave.
The trio is said to have struck first at 9:18 p.m. on Leroy St. between Varick and Hudson Sts., when a woman, 39, had a gun put to her face and gave up her bag to three teenagers. An hour later, the three reportedly held up a 23-year-old woman opposite 29 Washington Square West where Williams displayed the gun in his waistband. However, the three fled when someone else approached the scene. At 11:20 p.m., they demanded the wallet of a woman, 50, who was walking her dog on W. 14th St. at Seventh Ave., but fled, without taking anything, into the subway where Williams was apprehended.
He was found to have a BB pistol tucked in his waistband and is charged with first-degree robbery, attempted robbery and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
ID theft
Police arrested a man for identity theft, grand larceny and possession of stolen property on Sun., May 24, when he tried to pick up 12 laptop computers from a United Parcel Service center at W. Houston and Washington Sts., according to the office of Robert Morgenthau, Manhattan district attorney.
Anthony Cundiff, 27, was charged with opening a credit line with stolen information the previous week, buying four laptops on the credit line and ordering 12 more, but UPS held the order because the zip code of the ID theft victim was incorrect, the D.A.’s Office said.
Taxi robbery arrest
The suspect in eight holdups of taxi drivers in the Village, Chelsea and the Lower East Side was arrested Thursday afternoon, May 31, after he apparently left his cell phone in one victim’s cab, police said.
Earl Evans, 36, who hails originally from Nashville, Tenn., was charged with eight counts of robbery in connection with the holdups that began with one on May 17 on 13th St. at Fifth Ave. and ended May 29 with one on W. 39th St. at Seventh Ave. Cabs were also held up on W. 15th St. and Fifth Ave., on W. 16th St. and Fifth Ave. twice, on Elizabeth and E. Houston Sts., Delancey and Ludlow Sts. and Broome and Chrystie Sts.
Police said they found a plastic model of a 9-millimeter Glock about as heavy as the real weapon with a sliding rack that works and sounds like the real thing.
West Village robbery
Two suspects were arrested for the armed robbery of a man on Weehawken and Christopher Sts. at about 1:30 p.m. Sun, May 27, according to D.A. Morgenthau’s Office. Niemah Baldwin, 19, and Deshawn Banks, 27, were arrested near the scene after the victim, 29, phoned 911. Banks is charged with wielding a gun and a box cutter in the mugging, which netted the suspects $20, according to police.
The defendants were being held pending a Sept. 4 court date.
Crashes stolen van
A driver of a stolen van being chased by undercover police in a cab lost control of the van and crashed outside a crowded restaurant at the corner of University Pl. and E. Eighth St. on Thursday evening, May 31, injuring three pedestrians and a bicyclist on the street.
The driver, Henri Trabal, 29, got out of the van and started to walk away from the chaotic scene but was tackled by a witness who held him for police. Trabal was charged with reckless endangerment, assault, grand larceny and leaving the scene of an accident.
The van was speeding down University Pl., crowded with pedestrians, at about 8 p.m., when it made a hard right turn at Eighth St. and crashed into a car parked outside the Dallas BBQ restaurant. The car’s owner was inside the restaurant with his family at the time.
The injured pedestrians and bicyclist were taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition and Trabal was taken to Bellevue and treated for minor injuries.
Nasty skaters
Lynn Vaag, a Soho resident, who was tending what she calls her “Pirate Garden” on a narrow 60-foot strip on Sullivan St. between Spring and Broome Sts. on Sunday afternoon, May 24, had a stone thrown at her by one of five teenagers who apparently resented what they considered the intrusion into their skateboarding site. The victim, who said she was shocked more than hurt when hit by the missile, said she was really saddened by the subsequent damaging of the one rosebush in the garden. She reported the incident to police at the First Precinct.
Soho break-in
The manager of Aroma Espresso Bar at 145 Greene St. at Houston St. told police that a couple of burglars broke into the place through a side door sometime between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Mon., June 4, and made off with $7,000 in cash. The in-house surveillance camera recorded the image of two burglars, police said.
Albert Amateau
