Chinatown murder
Police arrested Chuen Lau, 55, for allegedly stabbing his older sister to death in their Chinatown apartment.
Responding to a call from concerned relatives, officers arrived at 115 Eldridge St. around 6 p.m. May 17 to find Meilin Liu, 57, lying in her bathtub, already dead from the stab wounds to her face and torso, according to police and documents filed with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Cops arrested Lau — who shared the apartment with his sister — the next day, almost immediately after ruling the case to be a homicide. According to D.A. documents, Lau actually admitted in a conversation with another person — an unnamed informant who then told police — that he murdered his sister.
Lau was charged with second-degree murder.
Laptop burglar busted
Police arrested a sneaky burglar more than a month after he allegedly ripped off a West Village apartment — and they got him when he tried selling the laptop he stole.
Jimmy Feliciano, 53, allegedly broke into the 234 W. 13th St. apartment, around 9 a.m. on April 7, by picking the front-door lock, police said. The apartment’s 28-year-old resident, who was home at the time, told cops he awoke to the sound of footsteps inside, and by the time he walked out to check, he realized his Macbook Air laptop was gone.
The case went unsolved for weeks, until Sixth Precinct detectives learned through an investigation that Feliciano was selling what appeared to be the stolen laptop, police said. Once the sale took place, the detectives positively identified the laptop by matching it to the serial number provided by the victim. Feliciano was tracked down and arrested on May 13, and charged with burglary.
Assault and insults
A resident of a partially collapsed West Village building was arrested May 14 after allegedly attacking a police officer who barred him from entering the unsafe building.
Robert Avchen, 57, an 85 Christopher St. tenant, tried to get in around 10 p.m., police said. The building had been evacuated by the city earlier that day after the facade of the top two floors began to buckle, with bricks and cement falling to the street below.
When the officer denied him access, Avchen become agitated, took off his belt and began hitting the officer with the belt buckle, according to cops. The angry resident, who is white, also reportedly shouted obscenities at the black officer, even calling him a “f—— nigga,” according to the police report.
As the officer tried to arrest him, Avchen reportedly continued to fight back and flail his arms, and bit the officer on his right middle finger before he could finally be subdued. He was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration.
Backpack swipe
Police arrested Jules Spikes, 52, on May 14 after he allegedly stole a woman’s backpack from a Chipotle restaurant at 55 E. Eighth St.
The woman, 22, said she was eating in the burrito joint around 3:30 p.m., when the backpack — containing her Mac laptop — was swiped. She didn’t get a look at the thief during the incident, but she reported it to police, who spotted the suspect in the restaurant’s video surveillance footage.
Spikes was caught later that evening during a canvass of the area, and was still carrying the woman’s backpack, police said. He was charged with petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
Drug collar
Police arrested John Baity, 31, after he was allegedly found carrying a big stash of illicit drugs in his pockets inside a West Village subway station.
Baity was initially stopped and searched after officers manning the W. Fourth St. station spotted him crawling under the turnstile around 6 a.m., police said. The officers then found two ziplock bags of alleged marijuana stuffed into his front pants pocket, after which they also found a ziplock bag of alleged cocaine. The search also turned up two alleged capsules of the party drug “Molly.”
Then, while Baity was being driven back to the precinct, the officers said they noticed he was moving around in the backseat and trying to get into his pants. They later found yet another alleged capsule of “Molly” in the back seat, police said.
At the time of his arrest, Baity was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence. But the charges were later reduced to only four counts of unlawful possession of marijuana (violations), plus turnstile jumping and criminal trespassing.
Slap and threat
Police arrested Noah Penn, 21, on May 18 after he allegedly attacked and threatened to kill another man on downtown subway train.
The victim, 22, said he was riding the southbound A train as it passed W. Fourth St. around 5:30 a.m., when Penn approached him and slapped him in the face. Penn then allegedly made the man fear for his life by stating he was going to take a utility knife from a nearby passenger and murder him.
Penn was pulled off the train by police and arrested at the W. Fourth St. station, although the officers found he did not have a knife. Penn also allegedly flailed his arms to try to avoid being handcuffed. He was charged with menacing, harassment and resisting arrest.
— Sam Spokony
