Volume 74, Number 26 | Octuber 27 – November 03 , 2004
POLICE BLOTTER
East Village murder trial
Isais Umali, charged with the fatal stabbing on April 13 last year of Dana Blake, 32, a bouncer at Guernica bar on Avenue B, went on trial on Mon., Oct. 25. Umali is charged with stabbing Blake in the groin in a fight that broke out while Blake was ejecting Jonathan Chan, Umali’s friend, for violating the smoking ban. Umali’s lawyer, Alan Lewis, told the jury on the first day of the trial that Blake, 6 ft. 6 in. and known as Shazam, was holding Chan in a chokehold and that Umali was protecting his friend’s life. Chan has been identified as the son of Wing Yeung Chan, leader of the Ghost Shadows, a Chinatown gang. Umali, an expert in kali, a Philippine martial knife technique, is charged with deliberately severing Blake’s artery.
Chelsea shootings
Detectives at the 10th Precinct are investigating three shootings in the Elliott Chelsea Houses complex, the latest at 4:56 p.m. Mon., Oct. 25, which ended in the death of David Deckle, 27, of 18 E. 116th St. Deckle was shot three times in the chest, chin and knee in front of 450 W. 27th St., by an unknown assailant. Deckle was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital where he was declared dead, police said.
At almost the same time, at 4:55 p.m. on Monday, an assailant fired three shots that hit a victim in front of 446 W. 26 St. and fled, police said. The victim was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in stable condition but has refused to cooperate with police.
On Oct. 10, an argument between two men at 1:30 p.m. in front of 428 W. 26th St. ended with one man shot in the lower abdomen. The victim, whom police declined to name, got to St. Vincent’s Hospital on his own.
Police are investigating whether the three incidents are related. There were no arrests by press time on Oct. 26.
Homicide-suicide
Police responding to a report of violence at 61 Clinton St. between Rivington and Delancey Sts. at 10:30 a.m. Mon., Oct. 25, found a man and a woman dead. The man, Julio Garcia, is believed to have killed his girlfriend, Maria Tavares, 34, and then committed suicide. The case was still under investigation, police said, on Oct. 26.
Dead on Sixth Ave.
A man walking on Sixth Ave. near 28th St. fell to the sidewalk at 2:30 a.m. Fri., Oct. 22, police said. The victim, Thomas Schwab, 30, was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was declared dead. There was no evidence of trauma and witnesses on the street told police the victim looked as if he were drunk. The Medical Examiner’s Office is investigating the death.
Albert Amateau
