Murder on Avenue C
A 911 phone call brought Ninth Precinct police to a fourth-floor apartment at 133 Avenue C near Eighth St. shortly before 4 a.m. Fri., Sept. 18, where they found the tenant, Edgard Mercado, 39, lying face up on the floor of his bedroom, dead with a rope pulled tight around his neck.
The suspect, Davawn Robinson, 22, of Paterson, N.J., was arrested later and told a detective that he had strangled the victim with the length of rope sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., according to the complaint filed by the office of District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Robinson knew the victim only by his first name, according to court documents, and was believed to have been invited to the victim’s apartment. Mercado, a native of Peru and a resident of the East Village for several years, taught at the City University of New York at 35th St., an acquaintance said. Robinson was being held without bail pending a Sept. 24 court appearance on a charge of second-degree murder.
Meat Market robbery
Police arrested Moussa Doucoure, 26, and Diego Krause, 21, shortly after 3 a.m. Sun., Sept. 13, after a victim reported that he got into a fistfight with the two suspects on the northwest corner of Ninth Ave. and W. 14th St. on the edge of the Meat Market district. The victim said one of the two suspects ripped his jacket off over his head and both suspects fled. The victim said he had $700 in the jacket, which must have fallen out during the incident and was not recovered. The suspects, both of 16 E. 38th St., were being held in lieu of bail pending a Dec. 15 court appearance on charges of second-degree robbery, according to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office.
Foiled kidnap attempt
Police arrested Sirreno Wilson, a homeless man, 31, shortly before 6 p.m. Wed., Sept 16, and charged him with attempting to kidnap a woman resident who was walking in front of her building at 99 Jane St. near Washington St. The building doorman, Elvis DeLeon, 27, saw the woman, 34, being grabbed from behind and jumped into action, according to a New York Post report. He knocked the suspect to the ground, freed the victim from the suspect’s grasp and held him while a woman who works as a nanny in the building phoned police. Wilson was being held in lieu of bail pending a court appearance on charges of assault and attempted kidnapping.
Second-story man
Police arrested Ramon Pacheco, 45, of 139 E. Eighth St., on Sat., Sept. 12, and charged him with breaking into several apartments in the Lower East Side and the East Village, including six in an E. 10th St. building. One break-in was through a skylight and others were via windows on fire escapes, police said.
Pacheco is charged with taking at least $2,000 and various jewelry and computers from the apartments and with entering an E. 10th St. building while a woman resident was asleep in her bedroom.
On June 15, a resident of a first-floor apartment at 325 E. 10th St. told police that someone had entered her apartment and taken a laptop. Police said Pacheco admitted entering the place through a window and taking the item, according to the complaint.
The suspect also admitted he entered a penthouse apartment at 301 Elizabeth St. through a skylight on Aug. 7 and took a laptop, camera equipment and an iPod, the complaint says. On Aug. 30, the suspect entered a third-floor apartment at 325 E. 10th St. and took computer equipment, a camera and the resident’s passport, the charges say. On Sept. 3, the suspect entered another first-floor apartment in the E. 10th St. building through a window and stole jewelry and money, plus made off with the window air conditioner, the charges say.
A third-floor apartment at the E. 10th St. building was the target on Sept. 8 when a female resident woke up to see the suspect fleeing out her window with her camera and a laptop, according to the charges.
Pacheco admitted to police that on Sept. 10 he stole a laptop, jewelry and a camera from a fifth-floor apartment in the same building, but said he didn’t remember anything about two bicycles also reported missing, the complaint says.
He was arrested after he had fallen asleep in the same building the night before and woke up, when the owner, who is also the building super, encountered him, the complaint says.
Bowery assault
Two suspects who began an argument with a man, 29, on Bleecker St. near Bowery around 2 a.m. Sat., Sept. 19, turned violent and assaulted him, police said. The suspects fled and the victim was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital with a broken nose, according to reports.
Said no to drugs
A man, 24, walking on Washington Square South at LaGuardia Place around 5:30 a.m. Sat., Sept. 19, declined the offer of drugs — unspecified — from two men who approached him, police said. The suspects then attacked the man, punched him and kicked him in the groin and made off with his iPod, cell phone, credit cards and $104 in cash, police said. One of the robbers was described as black, the other Hispanic, both in their 20s. Shortly before the attack, the victim picked up a tall white woman with short blonde hair, black boots and a nose ring. After the attack, the woman was gone.
Girl robbed
A girl, 14, walking on the northeast corner of Seventh Ave. at 15th St. shortly after 3 p.m. Mon., Sept. 14, was attacked by three women and a man, all about 18, who pushed her up against a building and demanded her cell phone, police said. When she refused the man said he had a knife, took her phone and fled with the other suspects, police said.
Albert Amateau
