By Albert Amateau
Woman killed by truck
A woman, 41, was hit by a truck and killed at the corner of Clinton and Grand Sts. at 10:30 p.m. Thurs., March 19, police said. The driver of a 1995 Mack truck going eastbound on Grand St. was making a turn onto southbound Clinton St. when he struck the victim. She was declared dead at the scene. There was no evidence of a crime, but police on Tuesday were still investigating the incident. The victim’s identity was withheld pending family notification.
Attacks cabbie — and cab
Police arrested Iris Lopez, 35, who gave a Miami, Fla., address when she was arrested around 5 a.m. Sun., March 22, at Seventh Ave. South and Christopher St. Angry after the driver of a black livery cab refused to take her to the Bronx and ordered her out, the suspect pepper-sprayed the victim, and stabbed him in the back of the head with a ballpoint pen; then she jumped onto the hood and kicked the windshield until it cracked, according to charges filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Lopez was taken to Bellevue Medical Center for observation and released later on her own recognizance pending a June 18 court appearance for assault.
Varick St. holdup
A man walked into the cell-phone store at 206 Varick St. at Houston St. at 3:30 p.m. Tues., March 3, waved a black handgun at the man and woman tending the store, and demanded money, police said. The suspect, a black man about 6 feet tall, took $316, a laptop computer and two cell phones and fled on foot.
‘You’re not a cop!’
A man, 32, was on the corner of Grove and Bedford Sts., where a stranger approached him at 2:50 a.m. Thurs., March 19, said he was a police officer, accused him of looking for drugs and then took $14 from his pocket and punched the victim in the face. A witness yelled, “You’re not a cop!” then both the witness and the victim started yelling for police. The suspect then threw the $14 at the victim and threatened “to get him” and fled on foot. The victim and the witness flagged down a police car and identified the suspect on Bedford St. three blocks away. Keith Semiday, 37, was charged with robbery.
Bar bashing
A man, 27, sitting at the bar at Sweet and Vicious, at 5 Spring St. between Bowery and Elizabeth St., was the victim of an unprovoked attack around 2 a.m. Mon., March 16, by a stranger who punched him in the face and broke his nose and a cheekbone, police said. The victim, an East Guttenberg, N.J., resident, was treated at Roosevelt Hospital.
A Queens man was attacked by a group of fellow patrons at Greenhouse bar, 150 Varick St. near Vandam St., at 2:40 a.m. Tues., March 17, police said. One assailant hit the victim over the head with a bottle, according to police.
Bag-snatch arrest
A woman playing pool at Stonewall Inn, 55 Christopher St., around 3:20 a.m. Tues., March 17, saw someone lift her wallet from her bag and leave the place. She alerted her boyfriend, who chased and caught the suspect, who returned the wallet. Police arrived and charged Anthony Copeland, 24, with robbery.
‘I’m from Detroit’
Police arrested Jason Zahorchak, 33, around 3 a.m. Sat., March 14, for menacing his girlfriend, 29, with two knives in their apartment at 139 First Ave. at St. Marks Place, and then grabbing her by the hair and pushing her into a wall. The suspect told the victim, “You don’t know who you are messing with. I’m from Detroit,” according to the assault charge filed by the Manhattan district attorney.
Cell slap ’n’ swipe
A woman walking on the north side of Bleecker St. at MacDougal St. was talking on her cell phone at 10:45 p.m. Mon., March 16, when a man approached her from in front, slapped her in the face, grabbed the cell phone and ran west on Bleecker, police said. The victim ran to her building, where the doorman phoned 911. Police conducted a canvas with no results and the victim was unable to identify the suspect from police mug shots, police said.
Fire-escape entry
A burglar entered an apartment at 215 W. 14th St. through a window from a fire escape sometime between 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Tues., March 17, took $400 in cash, a laptop computer and a digital camera, and exited the same way he entered, police said.
Took her iTouch
A woman who had been listening to her iPod Touch on a northbound No. 3 train dozed off around 9:15 a.m. Wed., March 18, when a teenager sitting next to her grabbed the music device and fled at the 14th St. stop, police said. The victim got up and chased the suspect, who reached the street and escaped, police said.
Sleazy straphanger
Transit police arrested Dilum Hattigoda, 20, and charged him with forcible touching and public lewdness at 8:30 p.m. Wed., March 11. The suspect sat next to a Queens woman, 19, who fell asleep on a northbound train at the Eighth Ave. station at 14th St., and touched her thigh while masturbating, according to the charges.
Public lewdness
Police arrested Jason Velasquez, 23, at 6 a.m. Sat., March 14, for loitering for the purpose of prostitution, public lewdness and trespassing. He was also charged with two counts of assaulting the police officer who apprehended him behind a fenced area on Bank St. near Greenwich St. Ivor Barnes, 41, of 511 E. 11th St., was arrested with Velasquez and charged with public lewdness. Both were engaged in oral sex in public, and Barnes was charged with marijuana possession, as well as trespassing and public lewdness, according to the D.A.’s office.
Velasquez pleaded guilty later to the two assault counts and resisting arrest.
Lesbian gang assault
Renata Hill, 26, of Newark, pleaded guilty on Tues., March 17, to a gang assault in August 2007 on a man injured in a stabbing in front of the IFC movie theater on Sixth Ave. at W. Fourth St. Hill was sentenced to three and a half years in the Bedford Hills Detention Center beginning April 30. Hill and two other defendants were previously convicted of assault, but an appellate court ordered a retrial. Hill pleaded guilty before the retrial took place. The 2007 incident arose when Dwayne Buckle, the victim, got into a dispute with a group of seven women and insulted them for being lesbians.
