Beating suspects in court
Sharif Rizk, 22, top, and Hatem Farsakh, 24, above, appeared in Man-hattan Criminal Court on Fri., Jan. 18, after being arrested in the brutal beating of Kevin McCarron, 24, as he was leaving Artichoke pizzeria on MacDougal St. early Sunday morning Jan. 13. McCarron, from Andover, Mass., was visiting the city and was out with friends when they bumped into another group of young men. A quarrel erupted and members of the second group reportedly fetched a baseball bat and other weapons from the trunk of a nearby parked car that were used in the vicious assault. At their Criminal Court appearances both men, who are out on bail, learned they had not yet been indicted for the crime, possibly because McCarron, who was beaten into a coma, has not been able to tell police what happened. Both men are due back in court in April.
Bitter words…then bit her
Police said that after an argument got out of hand, a cantankerous woman allegedly bit her antagonist’s hand and wrist inside the 14th St. PATH station on the night of Sun., Jan. 20.
The victim, a 43-year-old woman, told cops that Hassanah Drew, 24, first tried hitting her with a hammer while the two were in the station at W. 14th St. and Sixth Ave. around 10:30 p.m. When that failed, Drew sank her teeth into the woman’s left hand and right wrist, according to testimony given in the police report.
Drew was apprehended at the scene and charged with assault.
Purse thieves pinched
Last weekend wasn’t a very successful one for local purse thieves, as two were arrested in poor attempts to sneak away with the loot.
Early on Sun., Jan. 20, police arrested Aboubakar Bakayoko, 23, after he snatched a bag belonging to a 20-year-old woman while she was getting a drink at the eponymous 49 Grove St. bar. The woman told cops she’d left the purse — which contained debit and credit cards, an iPhone and an iPod, among other things — unattended for just a few minutes, but that it was gone when she returned. Fortunately for her, bar employees spotted Bakayoko attempting to hide the bag under his jacket, and stopped him before he could slink out.
And around 2 a.m. on the previous day, police arrested Samuel Blackstone after he tried making off with a purse filled with $650 in cash at the Tenjune nightclub, at 26 Little W. 12th St. The bag’s owner, a 22-year-old woman, told cops she’d also left it unattended for several minutes while getting a drink. As with the other incident, helpful club employees spotted the crime as it took place, reported it, and held the perpetrator until officers arrived on the scene.
Both Bakayoko and Blackstone were charged with grand larceny.
Not a pretty picture
Cops nabbed two men who, after a flurry of attempted break-ins, succeeded in lifting a pricey painting from a West Village art gallery.
Jamal Clark, 22, and Matthew Rosado, 21, tried to enter about a dozen commercial establishments and residential buildings early on Jan. 18, according to officers who were able to covertly observe them in the act. After all those failed attempts, the thieving duo was successful in their strike at the Paint Box gallery, at 498 Hudson St., around 4 a.m. Once inside, Clark and Rosado stole a $700 oil painting, cops said.
But their success was short-lived, as the watchful officers were ready to apprehend the crooks once they exited the building. Clark and Rosado were both charged with burglary.
Meatpack snatcher
Nearby officers were able to stop a fleet-footed thief who snatched a woman’s cell phone outside a Meatpacking District nightclub early on Thurs., Jan. 17.
The phone’s owner, 31, told cops she’d walked out of Kiss and Fly, at 409 W. 13th St., around 3:15 when the suspect grabbed the iPhone out of her back pocket and started running. Abdelhamid Ouhnayen, 23, was apprehended farther down the street and was charged with grand larceny.
Union Square beating
A street argument near Union Square on Tues., Jan. 15, ended in a vicious beating, when one man allegedly smacked another with a metal rod.
Police arrested Theodore Matthias, 56, around 9 p.m. after witnesses said he bashed the 36-year-old victim near the corner of E. 13th St. and Fifth Ave. It was unclear how the dispute arose, but the witnesses told officers Matthias grabbed the makeshift weapon and hit the other man several times on the arms and torso. The victim was taken to Beth Israel Hospital with swelling on his elbow and back, police said, and Matthias was charged with assault.
Was Loko to carry knife
Police arrested a man for carrying a knife while walking through the West Village early on Thurs., Jan. 17.
Anwar Olivas, 32, was stopped around 1:30 a.m. on Bleecker St., between Thompson St. and Laguardia Place, by officers who saw him drinking a can of Four Loko, an alcoholic beverage. But they were less worried about a public drinking ticket when they noticed a gravity knife clipped to Olivas’s pants pocket. He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon.
Sam Spokony
