Chelsea homicide
A resident of the Elliot Chelsea Houses was shot to death around 2:07 a.m. Mon., July 9, outside of 415 W. 25th St. near Ninth Ave., police said.
The victim, Dante Sanders, 19, found with four bullets in his chest, was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His assailant had escaped and police were investigating the case. Sanders was identified in a New York Post item as having an arrest record for trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Seek cop shooter
Police were still seeking the gunman who shot a police officer while he was on a vertical patrol of 64-66 Essex St. in the Seward Park Extension on the Lower East Side around 3:45 a.m. July 5.
Officer Brian Groves, 30, a seven-year New York Police Department veteran and father of two children, was saved by his bulletproof vest, which stopped the bullet fired from about 8 feet away, police said.
Groves fired four shots at the suspect before the officer realized he had been hit. It is not known if the gunman sustained any injury before he fled. Groves later collapsed from the pain of the impact of the bullet, estimated to be between .25 and .32 caliber.
Groves and his partner, Erick Corneil, both Housing Bureau police, were responding to suspected narcotics activity in the Housing Authority development’s stairwells. A vertical patrol starts at the top floor of a building’s staircase and ends at the ground floor.
Groves saw the suspect with a silver handgun when he opened the stairwell door on the 22nd floor of the Essex St. building. He shouted “Gun!” and began chasing the suspect, who turned between the 18th and 19th floors and fired at least one shot. The bullet embedded itself in the Kevlar vest, less than an inch from Groves’s heart, police said.
In the investigation that followed, two men were seen being led away in handcuffs, but no charges have been filed yet in the case, police said.
Elite cheats
Seventy-one Stuyvesant High School students, involved in a cheating scandal discovered last month, will have to take their state Regents exams over again. Six of them face suspension from the elite school.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced on Mon., July 9, the preliminary findings of the investigation into the cheating.
Nayeem Ahsan, 16, a junior at the public high school, was forced out of the school for using a cell phone to send photos of Regents exams to several friends. Five of the six students facing suspension had ties to Ahsan and the sixth is in trouble regarding a different cheating incident, according to a Daily News item.
Most of the 71 students who have to retake the tests, which could be as early as August, are juniors.
Subway death
An unidentified victim was electrocuted when he fell from the platform of the B and D station at Grand St. at 12:35 a.m. Sun., July 8. The victim, 28, apparently drunk when he fell, was declared dead at the scene.
Clinton St. stabbing
Police responded to a stabbing at 250 Clinton St. at Cherry St. in the LaGuardia Houses shortly before 6 a.m. Tues., July 10. The victim, who did not immediately cooperate with police investigating the incident, was taken to Bellevue Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. No one was arrested and police are investigating the case.
Motorcycle-truck crash
A rider of a motorbike observed weaving in and out of traffic on Mon., July 9, crashed into a truck at the corner of Rivington and Clinton Sts. around 2:25 p.m., police said. The victim, who was not identified, was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a broken leg.
Women severely beaten
Two women were severely beaten shortly before midnight Sat., July 7, by four men who fled from the limousine in which they were all riding at Canal and Washington Sts., police said. The victims were taken to Bellevue with severe but nonfatal injuries. One of the suspects was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 200 pounds. The victims told police the ride was organized by a man named Billy and the limousine left the scene to return to Billy, but his address was not known.
Cro-Mag attack
Harley Flanagan, 42, a former member of the hardcore punk band the Cro-Mags, invaded the band’s dressing room at Webster Hall before their 8:15 p.m. appearance at a Fri., July 6, concert and attacked two band members with a hunting knife and bit one of his victims.
Flanagan, the Cro-Mags former bassist and a founding member, had fallen out with the group, which was appearing in the E. 11th St. venue at a CBGB Festival concert honoring the Bowery rock club that closed in 2006.
Band member William Berario, 45, sustained a slash above his right eye and a bite mark on his cheek. Michael Couls, 33, the Cro-Mags’ current bassist, sustained cuts on the arm and the abdomen. They were taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Police handcuffed the crazed Flanagan to a chair and carried him out, taking him to Bellevue for observation. He was charged with two counts of second-degree assault and weapons possession. The concert was cancelled.
Bottles rain down
Police, including an N.Y.P.D. helicopter, responded to a hail of glass bottles raining down onto W. 12th St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves. around 9 p.m. Tues., June 26. No one was hurt and there were no arrests.
Beer-bust defense will ‘die hard’
Scout Willis, a Brown University student and daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, is contesting a misdemeanor charge that she was drinking from a can of beer last month in the Union Square subway station. Her lawyer, Stacey Richman, is asking the Manhattan district attorney to “Show me the beer.”
The complaint says the blonde student was drinking from an eight-ounce can of Murree Beer, a Pakistani import. But Murree beer only comes in 500-milliliter cans, although they do have an 11-ounce can of nonalcoholic beer, Richman noted.
Willis is also charged with giving police a fake name, “Katherine Kelly,” before owning up to being the 20-year-old celebrity daughter. The case comes up again in court on July 31.
Soho shoplifters
The management at the Chanel boutique at 139 Spring St. discovered around 12:33 p.m. Sat., June 30, that a silver Chanel bag valued at $5,100 had been stolen from a display table.
Two suspects entered the True Religion boutique, 132 Prince St., around 4:28 p.m. Wed., July 4, stuffed six pairs of jeans with a total value of $1,710 into a shopping bag and managed to leave the place, one at a time, without paying for the items.
Sounds of Bottle attack
Three suspects were arrested in SOB’s (Sounds of Brazil), the club at 204 Varick St. around 12:45 a.m. Fri., July 6, for punching a victim and hitting him over the head with a bottle. Harvendee Singh, 32, Bhanwar Nayyar, 26, and Milan Singh, 22, were charged with assault.
Clean break
A woman told police she parked her car in front of 95 Vandam St. around 10:40 a.m. Sat., July 7, left her bag in the vehicle and locked it. She returned at 3 a.m. the next day to find the car still locked but her bag with her iPhone was gone.
— Albert Amateau
