Bouncer is slain
An off-duty bouncer at Forbidden City, 212 Avenue A near E. 13th St., was shot to death in front of the bar at 4:25 a.m. Sun., Aug. 23, and the suspect in the shooting was arrested that evening, police said.
The victim, Eric Pagan, 42, of 725 F.D.R. Drive, near E. Sixth St. in the Lillian Wald Houses, was shot in the face when he intervened in an argument in front of the club. The incident started after a white van brushed by two patrons who were leaving the place. The two patrons started to argue with the driver of the van, who pulled a handgun and fired two rounds, hitting Salvador Moran, 30, in the right hand and grazing the neck of Robert Calbo, 31, according to police.
Pagan, a single father of a teenage girl and boy, was in the bar but not on duty and ran out. He was shot after confronting the shooter, who fled in the van, according to witnesses. Pagan died on arrival at Bellevue Hospital.
Louis Rodriguez, 29, of 452 E. 117th St., was arrested around 8:30 p.m. Sunday and charged on Monday with murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. He was identified in a Daily News article as having served nearly five years in prison on an assault charge in the Bronx.
Moran and Calbo were taken to Bellevue in stable condition.
Bag grab and grope
Police arrested Gustavo Martinez, 20, shortly after 2 a.m. Mon., Aug. 17, and charged him with robbing and sexually abusing a woman on Second Ave. near E. Third St. The suspect, a Yorkville resident, simulated a gun, snatched the victim’s bag and pushed her into a building vestibule, where he groped her, police said. The victim punched the suspect in the face, and her boyfriend arrived and held the suspect for police. Martinez was being held in lieu of bail pending a Sept. 16 court appearance on attempted robbery and sexual abuse, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney said.
E. 12th St. mugging
Two men and a woman surrounded a man on E. 12th St. near Second Ave. at 4:45 a.m. Sat., Aug. 22, and demanded his shoes, according to police. The victim, 29, refused, and one of the suspects punched him and took an unspecified amount of cash. The three were arrested soon after and one of them, Glenn Williams, 24, of Brooklyn, was charged with robbery. He was being held pending a court appearance on Aug. 28. Another defendant was charged with a lesser offense and was sentenced to time served awaiting hearing. The woman was not charged and released.
Close shave on Bowery
A disturbed man attacked a woman who was walking with friends on the Bowery near Bleecker St. on Thursday afternoon Aug. 20, police said. The suspect, Donald Scawright, 47, a resident of the shelter at 317 Bowery, hit the woman, 63, with a can of shaving cream and then hit her in the head with a backpack, police said. After police arrived, the suspect punched the arresting officer, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Scawright was charged with assault and resisting arrest.
Cig sucker punch
A suspect asked a man at W. Fourth St. and Sixth Ave. for a cigarette at 4:15 a.m. Thurs., Aug. 20, but suddenly punched him in the head and fled, police said. The victim, 40, was treated for minor injuries at St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Posed as police
Two men, one of whom said he was a police officer and flashed what purportedly was a badge, stopped a man at 4:30 a.m. Tues., Aug. 18, frisked him and took a money clip and $200, police said. They walked away, but one suspect, Ronald Webb, 42, of the Bronx, was arrested later and charged with second-degree robbery and impersonation of a police officer, according to a spokesperson for the Manhattan D.A.
Helped themselves
Burglars broke into two apartments undergoing renovation in a building on Sullivan St. near Houston St. on Friday evening Aug. 7 and made off with unspecified construction tools. Witnesses said they recognized the suspects as former workers on the renovations, according to reports.
Shish-kebob rob
A man was buying food from a cart on W. Fourth St. at Seventh Ave. South at 2:30 a.m. Tues., Aug. 18, when a thief snatched $5 out of his hand. The victim, 23, of Brooklyn, struggled with the suspect and punched him in the face, but the thief fled before police arrived.
Bravest really was
An off-duty firefighter from Engine 10 on Liberty St. was in the Union Square subway station coming home from a party at about 10 p.m. Fri., Aug. 21, when he spotted a man lying on the tracks across from his platform. The firefighter, Adam Rivera, 30, jumped down, ran across the track and pulled the victim to the platform, where two bystanders helped lift him to safety as a train was pulling in. The rescued man, Marco Delemo, 45, was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital with serious head injuries, according to a Daily News article.
Meth mystery
An employee of a dog-grooming and daycare center at 41 W. 13th St. near Sixth Ave. turned in a bag of what proved to be crystal methamphetamine to police on Thurs., Aug. 20. The employee found the bag a week earlier, according to reports.
Beers weren’t fly
A Brooklyn man told police he was at a party at Kiss & Fly, 409 W. 13th St. in the Meatpacking District, and drank two beers at 2 a.m. Wed., Aug. 12, passed out and woke up at 10:30 a.m. at the northwest corner of the West Side Highway at 40th St. to find his iPhone and credit cards missing. There was an unauthorized withdrawal of $400 from a debit card and $300 in unauthorized charges on a credit card, according to police.
Albert Amateau