Mugged in Trump Soho
A man, 29, was reading his iPad in a public area on the ground floor of the Trump Soho hotel on Spring St. at Varick St. around 2:50 p.m. Thurs., Aug. 18, when two men attacked him, police said. One suspect put a choke hold on the victim, the other grabbed the victim’s iPad and both fled north on Varick St. Employees of the hotel called 911 and gave chase. Tavone Jennett, 16, and Jonathan McLeod, 19, were arrested nine blocks north at W. Fourth St. at Sixth Ave. and charged with robbery, police said.
Cyclist dies on LES
A Brooklyn Heights man was pulled under the wheels of a tractor-trailer truck on Delancey St. at Chrystie St. around 5:30 p.m. Thurs., Aug. 18, and died at the scene of the accident, police said. The victim, Jeffrey Axelrod, 52, of Hicks St., Brooklyn, was riding south on Chrystie St. and turning right onto the westbound Delancey St. when he came in contact with the right rear wheels of the truck traveling west on Delancey St., police said. The victim was caught between the truck and a park car, witnesses said. The driver, 42, remained at the scene and was not charged. An Emergency Medical Service team pronounced Axelrod dead. Police said no criminality was suspected and the investigation was continuing.
The accident occurred about 50 yards from a ghost bike memorial to Rasha Shamoon, who was killed Aug. 5, 2008.
Seeking 2010 killer
Police are asking the public for information regarding a suspect in the September 1, 2010 shooting death of a resident of the Al Smith Development on the Lower East Side. The suspect, Pierre Hecker, 29, was seen fleeing on foot down Madison St. toward Pearl St. just after the shooting, police said.
The victim, Anthony Evans, 28, of 182 South St. in the Smith Houses, was found at 2:53 a.m. in front of the building at 46 Madison St. in the project with three gunshot wounds, in the torso, the right arm and the head. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital on Beekman St. where he was declared dead on arrival.
The suspect, described as a 6’5”thin black man, was living at the time in Shomberg Plaza at 1295 Fifth Ave. at 110th St.
Anyone with information may phone Crime Stoppers at 800:577 TIPS (8477), log on to www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text 274637 (crimes) and enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.
Bridge daredevils
Three teenagers — two girls and a boy from the East Village — were arrested on the Williamsburg Bridge shortly after 6 a.m. Sat., Aug. 20. A motorist phoned 911 to report the trio walking on the train tracks headed toward the Brooklyn side of the bridge. Police found them crossing onto the bridge roadway climbing a ledge to take photographs. Ana Iudina, 16, Zakaryan Tatevik, 17 and their male accomplice, Bauyrzhan Ilyassov, 16, were charged with reckless endangerment.
Alien smuggling
Federal agents arrested three men last week — one an immigration lawyer with an office in Lower Manhattan — for serving as legal advisors to an international alien smuggling ring.
Hak Tung Lam, the lawyer, along with Wen Wo Lam and Ying Yang, advised the ring operators by recommending ports of entry, ways of avoiding detection, filing false immigration documents and obtaining fraudulent release of detained aliens, according to the office of Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Between October 2006 and February 2009, they helped smuggle 468 Chinese nationals into the U.S., according to the complaint. Hak Tung Lam was apprehended in a Homeland Security Immigration undercover operation.
South St. robber
A man who held an employee at gunpoint at the outdoor Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club in the South St. Seaport and made off with an undisclosed sum of cash on July 25 is also suspected of holding up a CVS store on Eighth Ave. in Chelsea three days earlier, police said.
