By Albert Amateau, Lincoln Anderson and Julie Shapiro
Beating victim dies
Police last week said that a man who was beaten on Essex St. early Saturday morning March 20, leaving him in a coma, subsequently died from a brain hemorrhage. Police identified the victim as Sandy Thelamy, age 30, of 588 E. 86th St., in Canarsie, Brooklyn. A police spokesperson said three suspects are being sought, the only description, that they were black males and their heights in the range of 5 feet 5 inches to 6 feet. The spokesperson said both the victim and his attackers had come from the club Element, up the block on the corner of East Houston and Essex Sts., before the assault, which occurred at 4:15 a.m. The attack left Thelamy unconscious on the sidewalk. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition, where he later died. Police gave no motive for the assault.
Woman found dead
The New York Post reported that a woman was found dead under suspicious circumstances Sunday in her Lower East Side apartment.
Nancy Cruz, 49, was discovered with head injuries in the Baruch Houses apartment when police responded to a 911 call at 12:50 a.m. Police were reportedly questioning a male acquaintance. A neighbor who lives below the apartment said that earlier, she had heard stomps above her, and a half-hour later, heard a man screaming.
Coyote capture
A coyote’s two-day jaunt through Lower Manhattan ended last Thursday morning when dozens of police officers cornered the scared animal in a Tribeca parking lot.
The coyote, a 1-year-old female weighing about 30 pounds, had been spotted the day before near the Holland Tunnel and in Battery Park City, according to press reports.
On Thursday morning, the coyote appeared on the West Side Highway, stopping traffic and attracting the attention of a police helicopter. The animal took refuge under a car in a parking lot at Canal and Watts Sts., but police followed her there.
A well-placed tranquilizer shot ended the standoff, and police carted the sedated coyote off to Animal Care and Control. She will be released in the wild.
2 slain in train attack
An argument over an accidental trash toss led to two young men being stabbed to death on the No. 2 train on Sunday shortly after 5 a.m. Ten Brooklyn friends boarded the southbound train at 42nd St. after a night out clubbing. As the train stopped at 14th St., one of them threw some trash out the door, aiming at a garbage can, but inadvertently hitting one of four men boarding the train. The Brooklyn group apologized, but a brawl broke out and one of the men in the second group pulled out a knife and started stabbing and slashing. Darnell Morel, 24, of New Jersey, was pronounced dead on the floor of the subway car, and Ricardo Williams, also 24, of Flatbush, was pronounced dead at St. Vincent’s Hospital. The killer and his friends fled the train at Christopher St.
Slashed with bottle
A mugger slashed a man’s face with a broken beer bottle in the West Village in a vicious March 21 assault, police said, according to the Post. The perpetrator, who has not been identified, came up behind the 25-year-old victim on Waverly Place at Gay St. at 2:40 a.m. The criminal snatched the man’s necklace, took his iPod, slashed him across the face and fled.
‘Can I use your phone?’
The Post reported that police said a woman was robbed in Noho after a thief asked to use her cell phone to call his girlfriend. The New Jersey woman, 28, was walking near Great Jones and Bond Sts. at 8 p.m. on March 20 when the stranger came up to her and asked to borrow her phone.
She offered it to him, but he put it in his pocket and then socked her in the head and ran off.
Leather lifters
Two men entered the Louis Vuitton shop at 116 Greene Sts. around 6:40 p.m., on Tues., March 9, and while one distracted security, the other stashed two Suhali shoulder bags and five Maliva slim envelope wallets into a large paper bag and walked out without paying. The shoulder bags were selling for $3,300 each and the wallets were selling for $900 each, the store reported.
Nearly cleaned out
The manager of the Michael Kors boutique, at 101 Prince St., was searching the bag of the store cleaning woman as she was leaving at 11:10 a.m. Mon., March 15, and found 26 watches taken from the store, police said. The manager managed to take back 20 but the suspect was able to flee with six of the watches, valued at a total of $2,119, police said.
No jail for ex-hack
A former cabbie confessed Monday to killing a Pace University student in an out-of-control ride on the West Side Highway — after skipping his seizure medication — the Daily News reported.
In exchange for a no-jail deal, Hassan Afzal admitted to a single count of criminally negligent homicide in the crash that killed Danielle Ricco, 21, in June 2006.
Prosecutors asked if he had stopped taking his medication and lied about a history of seizures when he applied for a state driver’s license and later a hack license — and if he was aware of the risks. Afzal answered yes to the questions.
He could have faced four years in prison if convicted at trial. Afzal also admitted to three misdemeanor assault counts for injuries to three others with Ricco — Pace students Amy Vallarelli and Enza Sallustio and her sister, Anna.
