Dead in Baruch elevator
Police responding to a 911 call at 4:58 a.m. Sat., Feb. 12, found a woman with multiple stab wounds to her back in the elevator of a Baruch Houses building at 555 F.D.R. Drive. The victim was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel Hospital. Police withheld the identity of the victim, described only as a 30-year-old Hispanic woman, pending family notification. The case is under investigation.
Sway stabbings
First Precinct police responded to a report of a brawl at Sway lounge, 305 Spring St., at 2:36 a.m. Tues., Feb. 8, and found one man bleeding from a laceration of his scalp. An Emergency Medical Service team took the injured man to Bellevue Hospital, where he was described as being in stable condition. Police learned that a second man, 25, had been stabbed in the stomach earlier and made his way on his own to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he was said to be in stable condition. A third man in the brawl walked into Downtown Hospital on Gold St. with a laceration to his ear, police said. There were no arrests and the case is under investigation.
East Village bag bandit
Hector Diaz, 46, was arrested Wed., Feb. 9, and charged with four muggings in the East Village between Dec. 5 and Feb. 6. On Dec. 5 at about 4:30 p.m., Diaz grabbed a woman walking on E. Seventh St. between Avenues A and B, demanded her bag and fled with it, according to charges filed by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.
On Dec. 19, the suspect followed a woman into her building near E. Sixth St. and First Ave. around 4 a.m., put a letter opener to her neck and grabbed her bag and fled, the complaint says.
On Jan. 3, Diaz tackled a woman walking near E. 13th St. and First Ave. around 4 a.m., grabbed her bag and fled, police said.
Diaz followed a woman into her building on E. Sixth St. near Avenue C around 2:26 a.m. Sun., Feb. 6, grabbed her bag, stabbed her thumb with a pen when she resisted and made off with the bag.
Bogus bellhop
A woman visitor checked into the Sheraton Four Points, 66 Charlton St., Mon., Feb. 14, and saw a man she thought was a bellhop taking her bags from the front desk to the conference room shortly after noon, police. She left for two hours and returned to learn that her bags were missing. The hotel surveillance camera showed a man who was not a hotel employee picking up the luggage and walking off, police said.
Arrested again
Matthew Francis, 21, who is awaiting trial for beating and attempting to rob a gay man last Oct. 3 inside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St., was arrested with an accomplice on Staten Island on Mon., Feb. 7, for beating a homeless man and assaulting two officers.
Francis and Lattea Tate, 19, were charged with beating the victim, who was trying to buy drugs from the suspects during the early morning hours on Monday. Police arrested the pair near the scene in Port Richmond, S.I., where Francis resisted being handcuffed and kicked the arresting officer, police said. Later, Francis punched another cop in the shoulder who was putting him in a holding cell in the 120th Precinct, according to reports. Francis is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Party out of bounds
The Queen of Hearts, a Hudson River party boat berthed at Pier 40 during the summer, was reported adrift in the Hudson River around 10 a.m. Tues., Feb. 8, after high winds blew her from her winter mooring in Lincoln Harbor in New Jersey. A police harbor unit tied up to the unoccupied vessel to stop it from drifting, and held it until a tugboat arrived to tow it back to its berth in New Jersey, police said.
East River DOA
The N.Y.P.D. Harbor Unit pulled from the East River the body of a man who jumped from the Manhattan Bridge on Thursday morning Feb. 10. A witness who spotted the man jumping phoned 911 at around 7 a.m. The victim was not identified pending family notification.
Boutique robberies
Police arrested Anthony Gilliam, 49, and Albert Anderson, 48, for robbing shops in Chinatown and Soho and on the Upper East Side between Jan. 21 and Feb. 3, and tying up and beating the employees. Gilliam, who was arrested Feb. 9, was charged with robbing a shop at 199 Prince St. on the afternoon of Feb. 3 with Anderson. They threatened to kill the woman attendant and attempted to tie her hands behind her back, police said. She managed to escape after the pair fled, police said.
On Jan. 25, the suspects entered a shop at 75 Baxter St. at 4:50 p.m., where one of them punched the woman attendant in the face, dragged her to the bathroom in the store’s rear and bound her hands with plastic ties, according to the charges.
On Jan. 21, the suspects entered a boutique at 533 Third Ave. at E. 35th St., where one of them grabbed the woman attendant by the neck. The two suspects bound the victim’s hands and legs and took her bag before fleeing, according to the charges.
The suspects are being held pending a March 1 court appearance, according to a spokesperson for Manhattan D.A. Vance.
French Connection bust
Police arrested Bradley Jones, 53, on Feb. 4 and charged him with larceny for stealing three jackets with a total value of $1,104 from the French Connection boutique, 435 West Broadway near Prince St., on Jan. 5. Jones shoplifted the three jackets at 3:15 p.m. and fled with them. His arrest was attributed to a surveillance tape.
Craigslist senior mafia
Gerald Degerolamo, 65, was sentenced on Feb. 8 to five-and-a-half years in prison for the Dec. 26, 2009, Macing and mugging of a man in the vestibule of a building at 125 Christopher St. Degerolamo had lured the victim to the building on the pretext of buying an expensive engagement ring that the victim had advertised on Craigslist. At the rendezvous, Degerolamo blasted the victim with a can of Mace, grabbed the ring and fled. A New York Post item said that, despite being temporarily blinded, the victim, 31, followed Degerolamo and wrested the ring from him. The Post item identified Degerolamo as a Luchese crime family associate.
Wild man attacks PEP
A disturbed man who ran around Washington Square Park on Thursday afternoon Feb. 10 screaming at people, knocked down a female Parks Enforcement Patrol officer who had asked him to calm down. The man kicked the PEP officer as she lay on the pavement and fled.
Work-site burglar
Police arrested Matthew Miller, 34, around 2 a.m. Sun., Feb. 13, when they caught him in the closed construction site at 341 Bleecker St. Miller entered the building by breaking the glass front door, according to the charges of commercial burglary filed by D.A. Vance.
Baby food ’n’ briefs
The manager of the CVS at 20 University Place apprehended a suspect who walked out at 4:30 p.m. Tues., Feb. 1, without paying for four packages of infant milk formula and two packs of men’s briefs, with a total value of $95, tucked into a shopping bag, police said. The manager wrestled the suspect, David Kelly, 27, to the ground and held him for police, who charged him with larceny. A neighbor who was entering the store at the time said she heard the suspect admit that he had stolen the items but asked to be released because he had “given them back.”
Fake tickets
Police arrested Alphonso Clark, 39, for possession of a forged instrument on Sat., Feb. 12. The suspect is charged with selling false concert tickets to a teenage girl in front of 40 E. 14th St. at University Place. Police discovered the suspect also had six other fake concert tickets.
Auto stripper
Police arrested Carlos Manuel, 43, at 7:30 p.m. Tues., Feb. 8, after two witnesses told police they saw him breaking into a rear passenger-side window of a car parked at the curb in front of 496 LaGuardia Place between Houston and W. Third Sts. Police said Manuel has been convicted of several auto-stripping charges in the past five years.
Funny money
Wilfred Robert, 30, was arrested on Sat., Feb. 5, for trying to buy DVD’s from a store at 813 Broadway between 11th and 12th Sts. with counterfeit $20 bills. He was also in possession of three stolen credit cards, police said.
Albert Amateau
