March 29, 2008
Students were confined to classrooms until the end of the school day yesterday afternoon after a student was badly injured in a stabbing just after noon. Police swarmed through Paul Robeson High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, looking for a student suspected in the stabbing of 18-year-old Kyle Owens, who was wounded in the neck and the chest with an unidentified weapon. Teacher and basketball coach Todd Myles helped save Owens' life by coming to his immediate aid.
Ambiguity over the source and nature of the weapon didn't seem to placate parents, who seemed furious that security agents and metal detectors on the first floor of the building didn't prevent the bloody assault. The stabbing happened in a basement hallway connecting the school's cafeteria and gym. No weapon was recovered from the scene, so it's unclear if the blade was smuggled into school. Many parents rushed to the school to retrieve their kids after being notified of the stabbing by cellphone, which are banned in city schools.
Authorities apparently know the identity of the stabber, but aren't publicizing it. The two students had been arguing before the one stabbed the other. The victim is in critical condition after being taken to Kings County Hospital.
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Yesterday, a NYPD trajectory expert testified about the fatal 2006 shooting of unarmed man on his wedding day. Crime scene detective Michael Cunningham, only called to examine the evidence seven months after the incident, testified he was unable to determine some trajectories because measurements supplied by the crime scene unit team were inaccurate.
Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora are on trial for manslaughter, while Detective Marc Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment. Prosecutors used Cunningham's testimony to emphasize the defendents' reckless killing of Sean Bell, but during cross examination, he admitted some bullets could have ricocheted. Advocacy group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care said while Cunningham was proficient, if called too late to examine the seen, the NYPD crime scene unit was incompetent.
On Thursday, an optometrist who saw Bell months before the shooting he old was legally blind in his right eye, suggesting Bell might not have realized the plainclothes men confronting him were undercover cops. Bell did not purchase prescriptive lenses (his overall sight was still good enough for driving) and the medical examiner did not check whether he was wearing any.
WNBC's Andrew Siff tallied up some stats: By Thursday, 46 witnesses testified (including 6 of Bell's friends) in the 19 days, with the prosecution is expected to end on April 6.
The Prospect Park Zoo's recent marsupial addition was named Riley this week, following a public contest (even though no one knew the animal's gender!).
Riley is a Western Grey Kangaroo--a species native to Australia that can jump 30 feet at a time. Zoo keepers were only able to determine Riley's sex this week, which required that the names for the contest remain gender neutral (Kinta, Kylie, and Nari were the others).
In a vote organized by the cultural group Heart of Brooklyn, 208 submissions were winnowed to four options for voters, who determined that Riley was the best of the lot. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, building his future constituency, announced the winner in front of many appreciative children and that Allison Make had submitted the winning name (apparently the 48th most popular name for baby girls in the city in 2006, 159th most popular for boys).
There's a video of Riley taking some tentative first hops here. Little Riley didn't emerge from mother Christy's pouch for a month after her birth.
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March 29, 2008
Toronto 103 Knicks 95: The march to the end continued with another loss and another lack of defense. Zach Randolph didn’t play again (wink wink) but surprisingly Randoph Morris spent the night sitting on the bench. It’s clear from things like the 18-minute shoot-around the other day that Isiah simply doesn’t care anymore. And while that isn’t necessarily a surprise and may not even cost him a job in the organization, it is disappointing to...
Continue Reading "Last Night's Action: Just End Already!"March 28, 2008
Images from WNBC A month ago, a man stabbed two employees of the Key Foods supermarket in the East Village, killing one and seriously injuring the other. Today, police released surveillance footage from the attack, in hopes that someone can provide information on suspect Jamie Gonzalez. The footage shows the suspect walking down the aisle, heading to the manager's booth. Some employees are seen heading towards the booth also, but he exits holding a...
Continue Reading "East Village Key Food Killer Still at Large"
American Girl, by Murphy Zero at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bias crime on Troy Ave. in Brooklyn, a stabbing at Paul Robeson H.S. in Brooklyn, and a protest on the Queens side of the Queensborough Bridge. The daughter of Rep. Tim Bishop was criticized for earning $270,000 as a fundraiser since 2002. That's between $40K and $50K annually, so we not sure if she's being critiqued for profiteering or underachieving. The...
Continue Reading "Extra, Extra"Johan Santana got traded to the Mets about two weeks before the start of spring training, but his face popped up more in the Mets offseason than anyone else's. This was a great way for the Mets to take the attention off the dreadful collapse they suffered at the close of the 2007 season. Before the Mets reported to camp, they had something positive to talk about rather than the evaporation of a seven-game lead...
Continue Reading "Mets' Spring All About Santana. Well, Almost"
According to the NY Times, the Metropolitan Opera decided to restage Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde to bring leading "acclaimed Wagnerian" tenor Ben Heppner and soprano Deborah Voigt together for the first time in a staged production. And for those of you who haven't been able to buy tickets, you can see them in tonight's final performance because it will stream live from the Met's website. (Here's a link that will launch the Met's RealPlayer...
Continue Reading "Tristan und Isolde Streams Live Tonight"
A grandiose plan to turn Pier 40 on Manhattan's West Side into a riverside pleasure-dome was killed by the Hudson River Park Trust. The Trust objected to developer The Related Companies' insistence on a 50-year lease, because it had stipulated a 30-year lease. The Related Companies was willing to pay $625 million for the longer lease to create a permanent venue for the Cirque du Soleil as well as the Tribeca Film Festival. The Trust's...
Continue Reading "Pier 40 Plan 86'd by Hudson River Park Trust"Coming up on April 29th is the latest Grand Theft Auto extravaganza. The game wreaks havoc on Liberty City, which is essentially a not-quite-gentrified New York City (though it takes place in the current year). The latest leak from the anticipated game is a city map (we spy Roosevelt Island) and a map of the subway system, which has everyone opining. How does the Rockstar Games version of our 722-mile, 468-station subway system with 22...
Continue Reading "Grand Theft Auto's MTA System is...Different"We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Gothamist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Infected, the new horror thriller by Scott Sigler infecting you on April 1st. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. BARC Animal Shelter, where you can adopt or sponsor an animal. If you're interested in advertising on Gothamist or any other site in our network,...
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At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. The Japanese can claim responsibility for introducing kobe beef burgers to such temples of meat as the The Old Homestead Steak House. Now comes a startling new burger development: Japanese miniburgers. Actually they’re more like nanoburgers; each is barely the size of a nickel. If you’ve guessed by now that this snazzy little box doesn’t contain...
Continue Reading "At the Ethnic Market: Japanese Nanoburgers"