Results tagged “murder”

Police were looking for the boyfriend of a Queens woman who was found stabbed to death in her Corona apartment on Tuesday—but he fled to his native Colombia. Now the sister of victim Diana Bolivar says she went to the police precinct on Sunday and Monday about her sister's disappearance, but police ignored her requests. A lawyer for Paolo Bolivar told the Daily News that "both times she visited the police station, cops failed to pursue her claim - even telling her once to have her husband 'beat up' [John] Perez."

According to 1010 WINS, " Police say a man has been stabbed to death in Brooklyn only hours into the new year. Police haven't yet identified the victim. He was found shortly before 3 a.m. Friday in the Brownsville area with a stab wound to the groin." He was pronounced dead at a hospital and no arrests have been made.

The city is on track for the lowest number of murders since reliable record-keeping began in 1962, according to the Times. As of Dec. 27, there have been 461 murders — 35 fewer than the record set in 2007. Twelve of the city's police precincts in areas ranging from Park Slope to Upper Manhattan recorded just one murder each, while the precinct that covers Central Park didn't log a single homicide, the paper reports.

The father of two young girls whose mother was gunned down in an execution-style killing in front of them is demanding custody of the kids. Since an unknown gunman murdered 30-year-old Lakisha Scriven earlier this month, her daughters Alanna, 8, and Aleila, 5, have been staying with their grandmother. But their 37-year-old father Clarence White — who had moved out of Scriven's house before the killing after disputes and threats — wants his kids back. His attorney claims Scriven's mother illegally "absconded" with the children. "His rights as a father have been completely trampled on," the attorney told the Post. "We want the kids back where they belong; with their father for Christmas."

A New Hampshire jury found Ivonne Hernandez guilty of second-degree murder for running over a man who had mocked her for rooting for the Yankees last May. After a fight erupted in a bar in Nashua, NH — which is reportedly "Red Sox country" — a group of Sox fans followed the 45-year-old woman outside and started insulting the Yankees decal on her car and chanting "Yankees suck!" Hernandez then got into her 1997 Dodge Intrepid and drove it into the crowd, killing 29-year-old Matthew Beaudoin.

The wheelchair-bound man suspected in a gruesome slaying in an East Village shelter stabbed his disabled victim more than 20 times, according to the Daily News. After being teased about the size of his manhood, investigators believe that 51-year-old Felipe Rivera-Cruz stabbed 24-year-old Ronal Garcia four times in the chest, knocking the victim out of his wheelchair. Once on the ground, Cruz is accused of cutting the defenseless victim in the back and side in "excess of a dozen" more times with a folding knife, according to the criminal complaint.

Two wheelchair-bound residents of an East Village shelter got into a deadly argument early yesterday morning. Witnesses say that 24-year-old Ronal Garcia was killed after being stabbed repeatedly by 51-year-old suspect Felipe Rivera-Cruz after the pair exchanged insults.

After sitting in jail for five years awaiting his trial, a Bronx man was cleared of all of the charges against him on Tuesday. Michael Ikoli, 22, had been behind bars at Rikers Island since 2004, when he was accused of being involved in the shooting outside a skating rink.

Police continue to look for answers following the execution-style killing of a Bronx mother who was shot dead in front of her children. Lakisha Scriven, 30, was a caseworker for the city's Administration for Children's Services, where she was known for her cheery attitude, her tireless work ethic, and according to the Times, her taste for flashy high-heeled shoes that brought her "into work, into parties and into the city’s gloomiest conditions as if she were Carrie Bradshaw with a penchant for social justice."

A man who witnessed his young friend's murder after a dispute at a popular Halal chicken and gyro street stand has admitted that he lied to police about the incident. Chandradat Deodat, 23, of Jersey City, was with the victim, 19-year-old Tyrone Gibbons, and his brother Shannon on the night in October 2006 when the trio cut the line at the food stand at 53rd and Sixth. An argument ensued with the man behind them, Ziad Tayeh, who is accused of stabbing Gibbons to death after a car chase. But yesterday Deodat may have complicated things for prosecutors.

Two men killed a 50-year-old social worker in a brutal attack over fitness equipment in a Brooklyn gym, according to police. Douglas Smith was murdered after a dispute over who had dibs to a Nautilus elliptical machine at the Church Avenue Fitness Club in East Flatbush.

A 22-year-old man was shot and killed in a dispute over "bathroom rights" in a Bedford-Stuyvesant rooming house, according to the Daily News. Daquan Boyce called his mother late Saturday night and complained that another tenant in the building near the corner of DeKalb Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard wouldn't allow him to use the bathroom. At around 3:30 am today, a brawl broke out amongst several men in the residence and Boyce — the father of an infant and a four-year-old — was shot four times, with several rounds hitting his stomach. He died at Kings County Hospital' police are trying to determine whether or not Boyce, who has a criminal record for drug and weapons possession, was selling drugs from the building.

Police are looking for the boyfriend of the Queens artist who was discovered dead in her Long Island City apartment on Saturday.

A Queens artist was found dead in her Long Island City apartment yesterday. After 49-year-old Susan T. Woolf didn't respond to calls for several days, friends visited her 10th Street apartment and discovered her body in a pool of blood in the kitchen, with multiple stab wounds and packing tape around her neck.

Two years ago, a "reputed" NJ mob boss who had been on the lam for 10 years was spotted at an Upper West Side bodega and then arrested to face to murder charges for the 1977 killing of John “Johnny Cokes” Lardiere. Yesterday, a NJ judge dismissed the charges against Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola because the prosecution had taken too long to bring the case to a grand jury. However, the Star-Ledger reports, "That does not stop the state from continuing its investigation or presenting the matter to a grand jury in the future, [Superior Court Justice Paul] Armstrong said. 'The state and the defense are fully aware that there is no statute of limitations on a charge of murder,' Armstrong said." Coppola won't be going anyway, because he's serving a 42-month sentence for being a fugitive.

Yesterday, Rockland County prosecutor Stephen Moore revealed details about the death of gym teacher Jami Erlich, who authorities say was killed in her Valley Cottage apartment by neighbor Eric Lau. Moore said that Erlich's skull was fractured, "After the beating, he slit her throat almost to the point of decapitation," adding, "We did a search of his apartment. Items belonging to her, including her underwear, were found." Erlich's computer is also missing; it's suspected that Lau, a computer specialist, took it and dumped it while he was evading questioning from the police. Lau, who pleaded not guilty and claims he was at a girlfriend's the night of the murder (but hasn't offered cops the girlfriend's name), is being held on $2.5 million cash bail.

Long Island police today arrested a man in connection with the strangulation death of a Queens mother who had been missing since last month. Hairdresser Jamaica Smith, 36, who moved from Memphis in June, went missing the day before Thanksgiving after dropping off her daughter at P.S. 156. When she didn't show to pick her up, family members contacted police, and soon suspected "foul play," according to WABC 7. Her body was found by a meter reader outside an empty home in Uniondale yesterday and Marvon Jemmott, 35, was charged with second-degree murder. Apparently Jemmott was the father of Smith's daughter; NY1 is reporting that family members "believe Jemmott killed her over child support."

A Queens mother is furious that the man suspected of killing her pregnant daughter isn't being charged for the death of the woman's unborn fetus — and she's pushing for a new law that pro-choice activists fear might infringe upon abortion rights.

Police are searching for the gunman who murdered a child protection specialist in an execution-style killing in front of her children yesterday morning. Lakisha Scriven, a 30-year-old supervisor for caseworkers for the Administration for Child Services, was leaning into her car to help her two daughters, ages 5 and 8, buckle their seat belts before bringing them to school when a gunman pulled her from the vehicle and shot her in the back of the head. "He dragged her kicking and screaming from the van. She puts up a struggle, but he shoots her," a police source told the Post.

Today marks the 29th anniversary of John Lennon's death. The musician would have just turned 69 this October had Mark David Chapman not shot him dead outside of the Dakota on the night of December 8th, 1980. (Last year Chapman was denied parole for a 5th time.) To commemorate Lennon's life and death, fans will gather once again at Strawberry Fields (CityRoom spoke to the unofficial curator of the Imagine mosaic there). If you stop by, or attend any Lennon tributes throughout the city today or tonight, send us your photos.

Rockland County prosecutors say that the teacher allegedly killed by her neighbor had walked in on him in her apartment. According to the Journal News, DA Thomas Zugibe said of defendant Eric Lau, "We know he killed [Jami Erlich] in the apartment. It appears she walked in on him inside the apartment while she talked on her cell phone." Erlich was on the phone with her boyfriend; because their conversation ended so quickly, the boyfriend tried to call her back without success and then called 911. Lau, whose past criminal history includes charges of forgery, impersonation, contempt and harassment and a jail sentence for attempted robbery, has pleaded not guilty; he was apprehended last week, apparently fleeing the police in the woods.

A gunman shot a Bronx mother in the back of the head in an execution-style killing as she brought her children to school this morning. The perp shot Lakisha Scriven, 30, at around 7:15 am while she helped her girls, aged 5 and 8, get into the car. Cops haven't determined a motive for the slaying, but a source told the Daily News "at this point" it looks like a hit. WPIX has a rather graphic aerial photograph of the crime scene. Neighbor Alicia Parks, 25, said the shooting woke her up: "I heard crying and screaming...The only thing I kept hearing was, 'Mommy!'...When I finally woke up I heard, 'The bad man killed mommy.'" The children — who were unharmed — did not recognize the gunman, according to the Daily News.

A Binghamton University graduate student was charged with the murder of a professor. According to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, 46, allegedly stabbed "BU anthropology professor emeritus Richard T. Antoun... Antoun knew Al-Zahrani, a Saudi national, through his work in BU's anthropology graduate program, according to a statement released Saturday by Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen," who added, "There is no indication of religious or ethnic motivation." However, Al-Zahrani's apartment mates tell the paper that he "was confrontational, argumentative and 'acted like a terrorist.'" One said Al-Zahrani "came at me with a knife" while the other said, "He would be sitting here on the sofa and just blurt out, 'I just feel like destroying the world.'"

A Bronx renter stabbed his landlord to death after an argument about a spare mattress on Tuesday, according to police. The brutal crime occurred after suspect Omari Richards, 26, got into an argument with his landlord's fiancee over a spare mattress, the Daily News reports. Apparently, when the woman told Richards he couldn't use the spare bed because she needed it for her son, the suspect got angry and started shouting. "I heard [him] saying, 'She's a f------ liar,'" the fiancee said.

Defying conventional wisdom, crime is not on the rise despite the miserable economy. Police records reveal that as the city faces a 10.3-percent unemployment rate and record numbers of homeless families, "the number of major crimes is continuing to fall this year in nearly every category," the Times reports.

Graphic photos have surfaced from the recent murder on the D train. Photography student Paola Nuñez Solorio was on her way home with fellow students when Gerardo Sanchez allegedly stabbed Dwight Johnson because he wouldn't move his bag from an unoccupied seat to make room on the half-empty train. The two men did not know each other. Solorio took 120 photos during the murder, and today the Times has published four of them online. The images are very disturbing, as is Solorio's first-hand account of the murder:

The subway passenger who pulled the emergency brake during a grisly murder over a seat on the D train claims the attacker was unprovoked. Denouncing previous reports that victim Dwight Johnson had struck suspect Gerardo Sanchez during their dispute, witness Vincent Martinez said the victim — a homeless man who traveled everywhere with his bags — had already moved his duffel bag from the chair when the accused killer snapped.

The Corona dad suspected of slitting the throats of his wife and 14-year-old son claims he has suffered from multiple personality disorder since childhood, and that his alter ego Roberto was "responsible for everything I did that was bad," suspect Otto Herrarte told investigators.

The 37-year-old suspected of slaying a straphanger in a grisly murder on the D train was not provoked before the vicious attack on Saturday, according to prosecutors. When suspect Gerardo Sanchez boarded the first car of the northbound train at around 2 am at Rockefeller Center, he seemed "disorganized and disoriented before and after the shocking violence," a witness told police, according to the Post.

A Queens father is suspected of slitting the throats of his wife and son, then blaming the act on his alternate identity, according to cops. "Otto does not do these things, but Robert does," Otto Herrarte, 48, told investigators, according to the Daily News. "Otto did not do it. Robert did it."