Images from surveillance footage via WNBC The NYPD released surveillance footage of this morning's explosion near the Army recruiting center in Times Square. The footage shows a bicyclist approaching the building and an explosion taking place after he leaves. The bicyclist is of interest because a witness told the police he/she saw a bicyclist acting suspiciously. Earlier today, Police Commissioner Kelly said, "The individual (on the bicycle) was wearing a hood and dark colored......

Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg proclaiming a counterfeit foods store closed in a raid of counterfeit good sellers by Bebeto Matthews/AP Nothing says press conference like raiding a 32 stores in what the city dubs "Counterfeit Triangle" and hauling away over a $1 million worth of brand-name products. The raid, taking down stores in the area bounded by Canal Street, Walker Street and Centre Street, occurred in the early morning, with cops using bolt-cutters to......

You may recall that the original Freedom Tower design had to be scrapped (because the NYPD thought it was too susceptible to attack) and redesigned with a concrete base. Now the Daily News' I-Team takes up concerns law enforcement officials have with "security weaknesses" in the new towers at World Trade Center. The three new towers have too much glass and are "positioned too closely to city streets, increasing their vulnerability to attack." Also,......

There's trouble brewin' at everyones favorite chain coffee shop. WCBS is reporting that there has been a shooting at a midtown Starbucks. The BNN confirms with a location: 120 W 56th Street, and reports a possible robbery as well. The NYPD are currently still looking for the suspect. UPDATE: The shooting took place outside of the Starbucks and WNBC is reporting that the NYPD, based on preliminary information, believes the incident was part of a......

The Daily News put together a map detailing the number of stop-and-frisks on the subway - and the racial breakdown of these stop-and-frisks. As the accompanying article makes clear (as well as interviews with people who have been stopped - 1, 2) how cops can stop anyone , though black and Hispanic riders make up about half of the subway riding population, 88% percent of the people stopped are black or Hispanic. The NYPD......

The NYPD's recruiting woes appear to be continuing through 2008, with a sharp drop-off in the number of candidates applying to sit for the Police Officer Exam, which is the first step to qualifying to enter the Police Academy. According to the New York Post, the number of test takers is down 20% from number of people who took the exam at the same time last year. "Slightly fewer than 20,000 have applied for the......

Toward 2, by kerfuffle & zeitgeist at flickrToday on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on East 51st St. and Clarkson Ave. in Brooklyn, shots fired at Flatbush Ave. and Ave. I in Brooklyn, and more shots fired at the Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn. Philanthropist and Chairman of the Modell Sporting Goods Company, William D. Modell, passed away yesterday at the age of 86. Walk with love: Thundercut wishes a belated Valentine's Day......

Grisly! A totally crazy video of a Midtown fight is on Live Leak. The person who posted it wrote:I was sleeping in my hotel room when people screaming in the street woke me up. It was around 5:30 AM, two groups of drunk peoples were fighting in the street. The guy with the white escalade run over a guy on the ground and run away ! I gave the video to the police. However......

Photo by kerfuffle & zeitgeist. An East Village woman says she was punched in the face by an unhinged cabbie when she insisted on using the taxi’s credit card machine to pay her fare. Tamara Perez had arrived outside her apartment when she realized she was out of cash, so she told the driver she’d be paying with plastic using the self-automated card reader installed in the back. Apparently, the hack couldn’t hack it,......

When you're found to be making pipe bombs amidst an apartment arsenal of weapons and then confess to painting swastikas in your Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, expect the book to be thrown at you repeatedly. Ivaylo Ivanov was charged with over 100 criminal counts for his activities. Found in the Remsen Street apartment he shared with AIDS researcher Dr. Michael Clatts (they had their own living spaces in the duplex) were a "sniper rifle, machine gun,......

Untitled photo of dancers, by Raymond Haddad at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an escaped patient on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, a homicide on Bruner and Burke Aves. in the Bronx, and shots fired on Bainbridge St. and Lewis Ave. in Brooklyn. Jurors in the Nixzmary Brown murder trial were sent home for the second consecutive day Thursday as the defense, prosecution, and judge met in secret to discuss potentially bombshell......

Photographs outside Broome Street The NYC Medical Examiner's office says Heath Ledger's autopsy is inconclusive, citing the need to more tests. Spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said, "The autopsy is inconclusive and we have to do further testing which includes toxicology and tissue testing. We expect to have results in about 10 days to two weeks." Initial reports suggested pills were found scattered around the actor's body, prompting speculation that Ledger could have committed suicide. Ledger's......

The story of Ivaylo Ivanov just gets more and more strange. First, he calls the cops saying that he was shot in the hand only to admit that he shot himself. Next, the police investigate the situation only to find a cache of assorted weapons and pipe bombs at Ivanov's residence. Now the 31-year-old ex-con admits to defacing Brooklyn Heights with swastikas last year. Ivanov, who his lawyer says is Jewish, claims that the pipe......

Yesterday the police announced they arrested 61 people for larceny and insurance fraud after they sold their cars for parts and tried to claim they were stolen. The NYPD actually ran the Queens "chop shop" where customers would typically have a middleman drop off their cars. The arrestees include an NYPD officer, a school safety officer, a city buildings inspector, an area hospital's security director and a registered sex offender. The Post reports the cop......

The NYPD released a photograph of a man who attacked a woman with a meat cleaver in Brooklyn two weeks ago. Yes, a meat cleaver! The attack occurred on December 22, around 11PM (Was the NYPD motivated to release this information on the heels of the NY Times' "Best Meat Cleavers" feature?). The 52-year-old victim had been descending the 18th Avenue F subway station stairs, when, WNBC reports, "the suspect approached and grabbed her and......

Mayor Bloomberg has announced that the city will crackdown on the abuse of parking permits issued to civil servants, reducing the overall number by 20%. The change comes after the Post revealed in November that “149 separate government entities had qualified for the coveted placards last year, ranging from the state lottery to the US Navy recruiting office, which was allocated an astonishing 110 permits.” In fact, so many agencies produce and distribute the parking......

The NYPD may have the anti-graffiti task force, but with many graffiti crimes perpetrated in the subway tunnels, the NYC Transit Authority has created its own anti-graffiti team. The Daily News tagged along with the Eagle Team, a "surveillance squad quietly formed three months ago." The Eagle Team members, which include many former NYPD detectives as well as an ex-U.S. marine, inspect and patrol subway tunnels and yards for potential taggers. Vandals engrossed in......

As violence continues in Pakistan in the wake of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, New York City's Pakistani population was shocked by the news, watching news coverage and holding vigils. One woman said to the Daily News, "For us, this is like losing [President John] Kennedy. She wanted peace. She wanted democracy. And she lost her life for these things." And a man told the NY Times, “I think there will be......

While announcing that overall felony crime in 2007 is down 6% versus last year, Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly proclaimed that the city is on pace "is on course to set a new record in crime reduction" - to have the fewest number of murders "since records have been kept." The city expects the murder rate will be below 500 (as of Wednesday 7:30AM, there have been 484 reported murders), which is the......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an industrial accident on 10th Ave. near 30th St. in Manhattan, a man down an elevator shaft at 50 West 15th St. in Manhattan, and a homicide at Neck Parkway and 42nd Ave. in Queens. Not only have investigators found hard drives scrubbed clean of potentially damaging e-mail messages related to Troopergate, the Spitzer administration is refusing to even identify the names of the Internet Service Providers that were......

Silver and gold are so last season, if you're a trendsetting criminal -- you know it's all about the copper these days. And where better to find it than in brownstone Brooklyn? The Brooklyn Paper reports:At least four heists of the once-cheap electrical conductor have been pulled off in Brownstone Brooklyn since June, and a few others were foiled when the cops caught the bad guys red-handed before they could make off with their ill-gotten......

The NYPD detectives working the homicide investigation of Carol Simon have identified a suspect in her killing, although they are not publicizing his identity. Simon was shot as she was returning to her car where her son was waiting for her at a gas station. The killing occurred Saturday evening in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, as an argument between two men turned violent and one of the men pulled a gun. Neighbors and......

Operation Lucky Bag, the NYPD program that threatened to ensnare good Samaritans along with subway thieves, is making a comeback after being effectively shut down earlier this year. Initially, the program involved cops leaving bags of merchandise, wallets, or purses on subway benches. When someone picked them up and didn't immediately turn them over to the police or subway personnel, he or she was arrested. According to the police, Operation Lucky Bag netted 101 arrests......

Okay, so we've heard about how Rudy Giuliani's mayoral administration billed his police security detail expenses - accrued during trips to the Hamptons, possibly visiting then-mistress Judi Nathan - to various obscure city agencies. And then there are reports that Nathan, now married to the former mayor, used her NYPD security detail to chauffeur friends and family. Naturally, now there's talk of the police security expenses of Giuliani's then-wife Donna Hanover. The Post's David Seifman......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, a stabbing at Ft. Hamilton H.S. in Brooklyn, and a fall victim on 88th St. in Queens. Hillary and Rudy initially attempted to settle things by seeing who would yell "uncle" first as they tried to crush each other's hand. A 31-year-old NJ man says that he throttled his mother with his bare hands after she criticized him for his messy......

When the police announced they had arrested Linda Stein's assistant for beating Stein to death with a yoga stick, many people wondered what a yoga stick was. Some suggested it might be a weighted Pilates bar or pole, but the Sun reports on some possible issues with the alleged "yoga stick" confession. According to police, assistant Natavia Lowery was pushed over the edge by the brash and rude Stein on October 30, causing her to......

The police shot and killed a mentally ill man accused of slashing his roommate's throat yesterday morning in the East New York section of Brooklyn. This comes six days after the police fatally shot a mentally ill Brooklyn teen. Michael Angel Torres told police that his roommate David Kostovski slashed him with a knife while he was sleeping. The police found Kostovski a few blocks from his Autumn Avenue apartment and saw him holding a......

The second 911 call between police shooting victim Khiel Coppin's mother and a 911 operator seems to suggests some misinformation. Coppin's mother Denise Owens claimed she told the 911 operator who called her back that her son did not have a gun. Here's an excerpt (you can read the transcript here and hear it here) of the call at 7:05PM, 14 minutes before police shot at 18-year-old Coppin 20 times: Female: Hello Operator: Hi Maam......

A spray-painted swastika was found on the door of a Columbia University Teacher's College professor yesterday morning. Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who is Jewish and researches the Holocaust, said she had been "more public" about her work on the Holucaust, "I think there's a very hate-filled person who is an extreme coward. It makes my blood run cold." Midlarsky had received an anti-Semitic flier in her school mailbox on October 17. On October 24, she received......

The NYPD released surveillance photographs from the drug buys that ultimately landed Preppy Killer Robert Chambers and his girlfriend Shawn Kovell in jail. These photographs were taken in the couple's East 57th Street rent-stabilized one-bedroom - looks like they may have spray painted Shawn's name onto a door or wall Prosecutors asked that Chambers, with his infamous history and the fact that he was charged with 14 counts of drug crime plus counts of......