Arrest in senior’s killing
Police have made an arrest of a suspect who allegedly beat an elderly man to death just around the corner from the senior’s East Village home on May 9.
Jamie Pugh, 20, was picked up Tues., May 13, on E. 14th St. near First Ave. about 1:45 a.m. after police received a tip through the Crime Stoppers line. Pugh, a resident of 691 F.D.R. Drive, in the Lillian Wald Houses, is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree robbery and assault.
The victim, Wen Hui Ruan, 68, a Chinese immigrant who lived with his family on Avenue C, was walking along E. Sixth St., near Avenue D, around 8:45 p.m. when the suspect approached and began yelling at him, police said. The suspect then threw Ruan against a wall, knocking him to ground, and then punched him and stomped on his head three times, after which the suspect fled the scene, according to police.
Ruan was rushed to Bellevue Hospital after a bystander called 911, but he died shortly after reaching the hospital.
Based on witness statements, police believe the altercation was the result of a robbery attempt, according to a source mentioned in The New York Times. Police said Pugh has a history of robbery and drug sales. He was arraigned on Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court and charged with murder.
Home invader sentenced
A man who admitted to violently burglarizing five Manhattan homes in 2009, including three in the West Village, has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced on May 12.
William Rodriguez, 57, pleaded guilty on April 28 to multiple felony charges of burglary, robbery and kidnapping, as well as two misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child, for the 2009 spree. Before the sentencing for those charges took place, he had also just begun serving a 20-years-to-life prison sentence, which was handed down in March after he was arrested and convicted, through DNA evidence, of an August 2012 burglary of a West Village home, the D.A. said.
Rodriguez began his 2009 spree on Oct. 8 of that year, when he followed a cleaning woman in a W. Ninth St. apartment where she worked, then choked her, threw her on a bed and punched her in the head multiple times, according to court documents. He then used a vacuum cleaner cord to tie her hands and feet, after which he stole computers, cash and other property from the apartment.
After another burglary in Morningside Heights, Rodriguez struck again Downtown on Oct. 29, 2009, when he pretended to be a deliveryman and brought a fake package to a Bank St. apartment, according to court documents. A nanny, who was watching a 3-year-old child, opened the door, and Rodriguez forced his way inside while flashing a knife, after which he threatened to kill the nanny, tied her up using her own shirt, and stole a computer and camera equipment from the apartment.
Then on Nov. 2, 2009, Rodriguez forced his way into the W. 12th St. apartment of an elderly woman, again while wielding a knife, according to court documents. As in the previous incidents, he threw her down and tied her up — this time with a telephone cord — after which he stole cash from the apartment. He finished the spree two days later, with a similar burglary on the Upper West Side.
Rodriguez has been arrested more than a dozen times, including once in 1988 for attempting to shoot a police officer.
Drunken limo joyride
Marwan Elbordiny, 24, was arrested early on May 7 after he drunkenly stole a limousine packed with passengers and crashed it into a garbage truck in the West Village, police said.
The driver of the white stretch limo told cops he parked near the corner of W. Fourth St. and Seventh Ave. South around 3:15 a.m., with four passengers sitting in the back seat, and briefly stepped out of the car, leaving it idling with the key in the ignition. It was then that Elbordiny reportedly jumped behind the limo’s steering wheel and sped away, knocking over the driver and leaving him with minor injuries, according to documents filed in the Manhattan D.A.’s Office.
With the four frightened passengers still inside — one of whom eventually jumped out of the vehicle — Elbordiny reportedly then began a strange, high-speed joyride that initially consisted of driving in two small circles. After pulling away from the original parking spot, he drove south on Seventh Ave. South for one block, then turned left onto Grove St. (driving the wrong way), then drove for another block and turned left onto W. Fourth St. (again driving the wrong way), then immediately turned left once again onto Seventh Ave. South — after which he made the same loop again, according to the D.A. documents.
During his second loop, Elbordiny reportedly continued driving north on W. Fourth St., on which he was soon traveling with traffic, rather than against it, after crossing over Seventh Ave. South. But his frenzied joyride came to an end just a block later, when he slammed into the front of a private garbage truck at the intersection of W. Fourth St. and W. 10th St., according to the D.A. documents. The limo’s three remaining passengers, as well as a passenger in the garbage truck, all reportedly sustained minor injuries in that crash.
With the driver’s door apparently inoperable, Elbordiny then climbed through the limo’s passenger-side window and attempted to flee the scene on foot, but was stopped by passersby, according to the D.A. documents.
After cops arrived on the scene and apprehended him, Elbordiny took a breath test and was found to have a blood-alcohol content of .181 percent — more than twice the legal limit — police said. He was also carrying two small bags of alleged cocaine and one small bag of alleged hashish, police said.
Elbordiny was charged with grand larceny, reckless endangerment, unauthorized use of a vehicle, unlawful imprisonment, driving while intoxicated and criminal possession of a controlled substance, among other charges.
Planned to rob drug dealer
Police arrested three men — two of whom later confessed — as they were allegedly about to rob a drug dealer’s West Village apartment at gunpoint early on May 10.
Cops said they saw Aziz Rasheem-Coleman, 20; Devon Davis, 21; and Unique Smith, 35, arrive outside 15 Jones St., the alleged location of the robbery target, shortly after midnight. Davis was reportedly carrying a loaded 9-millimeter handgun and sat down on the steps of a building across the street, while Rasheem-Coleman and Smith approached the target building’s entrance, according to documents filed with the Manhattan D.A.’s Office. Smith was also carrying a knife, a fake pistol, a ski mask and gloves, police said.
When cops approached the three men, they all took off running, and tossed away both the real and fake gun, but all were apprehended after a brief chase, and both guns were recovered, police said.
It was Smith and Davis who later admitted to the officers that they were planning to commit the robbery, which targeted a drug dealer who was known by Rasheem-Coleman, according to court documents.
All three men were charged with attempted burglary, attempted robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and conspiracy.
— Sam Spokony
