Grieving mother
A distraught Irene Tirado, 54, talked to reporters Monday outside her Riis Houses apartment after learning an off-duty N.Y.P.D. officer had turned himself in in connection to the shooting death of her son Jayson Tirado, 25. Tirado was shot in his car in Harlem in what police believe was a road rage incident. Police are investigating the case, and the officer, Sean Sawyer, 34, has been suspended. At press time, he had not been charged with a crime. At left is a photo of Tirado, his daughter Jaylene, now 4, and her mother, Lisa Claudio.
Masked gunman
A man described as about 20 years old and wearing a bandana across his face held a gun to the attendant of a grocery store on Broome and Allen Sts. on Sunday morning Oct. 14 and forced him to hand over an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. The robber fired a shot when a witness in the store tried to stop him, but no one was hit, police said.
Soho hold-up
A man pulled a handgun on a woman attending a convenience store on Prince and Mulberry Sts. at 6:30 p.m. Wed., Oct. 17 and demanded money, police said. He fled after she handed over an undisclosed amount of cash.
Arrest in knifepoint robberies
Police arrested Garry Woods, 57, on Mon., Oct. 15 and charged him with four knifepoint robberies of stores in the Village, Chelsea and on the Upper West Side since Sept. 10. He is charged with robbing a store on Broadway and Washington Pl. twice, once on Oct. 13 and again on Oct. 15 when he was arrested. He is also charged with robbing a store on Seventh Ave. at 20th St. at knifepoint on Sept. 29. He is charged with pulling a knife on an employee of a store on Broadway at W. 77th St. on the afternoon of Sept. 10 and taking an unspecified amount of cash.
Village pickpockets
A woman, 63, told police she was walking on the southeast corner of W. Eighth St. and Sixth Ave. at 9 p.m. Sat., Oct. 13 when a man and a woman walking together bumped into her. She discovered later that her bag was unzipped and her wallet with cash and credit cards were gone.
Bicycle thief
A man, 35, who locked his bicycle on the rail of a subway entrance on the northeast corner of E. 14th St. and University Pl. at 5 p.m. Sun., Oct. 14, returned about 20 minutes later after shopping at the Whole Foods supermarket and discovered the bike was gone.
Mayor’s guard jumped
Mayor Bloomberg was on the Lexington Ave. line platform in the Fulton St. station in Lower Manhattan with some aides and N.Y.P.D. detectives at 1:20 p.m. Mon., Oct. 22 on his way to City Hall when a disheveled man jumped on a uniformed transit officer who was with the mayor’s party, police said.
Bloomberg was not the target of the attack and was unhurt. The transit officer, Frank Zaluk, 37, sustained minor arm and back injuries, and a detective, Thomas J. Healy, 37, sustained a minor back injury when he went to Zaluk’s aid.
Glen Cox, 30, of Brooklyn, was being held Tuesday pending arraignment, according to the district attorney. Zaluk had asked him to step aside as he was rushing onto a train that just pulled into the station when he grappled with the officer and both fell on a pile of construction debris on the platform, according to police.
Larceny arrest
A surveillance camera image led to the Oct. 16 arrest of a woman charged with the June 21 theft of a wallet from a woman who was shopping at Bebe, a clothing boutique at 100 Fifth Ave. at 15th St.
Sandra France, 44, of Brooklyn, was charged with taking the wallet with credit cards and ID from the victim’s bag, putting it in her own bag and leaving before the victim discovered the theft. Police are investigating France’s possible connection to other similar thefts.
Nightlife losses
A woman patron of Itre Merle, a lounge at 183 W. 10th St., had the bag which she had placed on the back of a bar stool stolen around 10 p.m. Tues., Oct. 16. The bartender told her he had seen three men acting suspiciously around that time, police said. A woman patron of Diablo Royale Restaurant, 189 W. 10th St., had her bag stolen from the back of her chair at 1 a.m. on Thurs., Oct. 11, police said. A woman patron of Trattoria, a restaurant at 262 Bleecker St., told police she had tied her bag to the back of her chair before beginning dinner at 7:30 p.m. Mon., Oct. 15. When she went to pay the bill she discovered the bag was unzipped and her purse with cash and credit cards was gone, police said.
Online real estate scam
A resident of W. 10th St. at Hudson St. told police on Mon., Oct. 15 that he wired $2,000 to an unknown person in California who said on the Internet that he owned an apartment in Manhattan that he would sell. The victim said he never heard anything about any apartment after he wired the money.
— Albert Amateau
