DOS police lieutenant John Fitzgerald is a 24-year vet who's better known as the guy who ended up carrying Naomi Campbell's bag when she reported for day two of her community service last year. And now he's stepping out of the model's shadow. The NY Post reports that the sanitation cop must have caught the criminal bug from the model, as he was busted in Queens yesterday for allegedly forging a gun permit. If convicted,......

Police netted the suspected gunman in a shootout that brought some real March madness to a Bronx sports bar Sunday night. Luis Paulino was arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, and criminal possession of a weapon for opening fire on the patrons and staff of the Oasis Cafe, which is located on Jamaica Avenue in the Norwood neighborhood of the Bronx. Paulino reportedly was having an argument with another patron at the bar and......

Mayor Bloomberg's fight against the gun industry has now crossed over into the world of custom weaponry. The Daily News points out that a Wisconsin company is touting a new line of paints, "The Bloomberg Collection." Lauer Custom Weaponry offers DuraCoat Firearm Finishes, which are "extremely easy" for an "average gun owner" to apply (Lauer also offers DuraCoat workshops). There's the "Bloomberg Collection EZ Camo Kit," where you can pimp your weapon with the......

A family had been living in its Mill Basin, Brooklyn apartment for less than a week, when their 18-month-old toddler was struck by a bullet that passed through its ceiling from an upstairs apartment Thursday afternoon. Their upstairs neighbor is 24-year-old police officer, an Army veteran assigned to Manhattan's 1st Precinct, named Patrick Venetek. Venetek rushed downstairs to explain what had happened. Per WCBS News, he claims he had been cleaning his gun when it......

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......

The family of Carol Simon is grieving after she was killed while walking on Eastern Parkway near Bedford around 5:30PM on Saturday. Simon, a 35-year-old nurse's assistant, had been on her way to take her son to swimming lessons when an argument between two men became violent and one pulled out a gun. Simon and her son Kieron, 9, had driven to an Exxon to buy some things. Simon realized she forgot her purse, so......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian was struck on Wythe and Metropolitan Ave. in Brooklyn, an overturned police car on Gun Hill Rd. in the Bronx, and a bank robbery on Austin Rd. in Queens. Joseph Jirovec, one of the teenagers accused of the Hannukah Q train hate crime, says that he and his friends were the victims. He said the fight began only after a racial slur was directed at one of......

A series of bodega robberies in the Bronx has police anxious to arrest the perpetrators. Yesterday, cops released surveillance footage from a Sunday robbery on St. Ann's Avenue, hoping the public will be able to identify the men in the video. Police believe the same robbers hit a store last night and shot a man in the face and torso. According to WNBC, the video shows a robber rushing behind the counter, pointing a gun......

Mayor Bloomberg has made ridding the city of illegal guns one of his administration's major issues (it's also a big part of his potential national platform). Last year, he, on behalf of NYC, filed two federal lawsuits against out-of-state gun dealers, after sting operations revealed that the dealers were apparently selling guns illegally. While some dealers have settled, others are fighting back, countersuing the city. The Bloomberg administration's sting operations involved two undercovers going to......

Yesterday, a woman was found shot to death, clutching a knife in her hands. It turns out that 23-year-old Shauna Sanders was killed on Jordan Avenue in St. Albans after fighting with a date about her cell phone. According to the Daily News, Sanders and her cousin met two men at a bar and went home with them Friday night. On Saturday morning around 6:30AM, apparently Sanders and her date, Donnell Dunson, got into an......

We take this to be definitive proof that the video of a group of teen girls beating a man on an A train was not staged: The victim has emerged. Rafael Cruz, a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident who is a manager at a Midtown H&M;, told the Post, "I'm trying to get over it. It happened a month ago." Cruz isn't sure if he will press charges, noting, "Teenagers are allowed to make mistakes, but......

After a video of a man being harassed and beaten by a group of teens was publicized by The Smoking Gun, some wonder if the tape is real. The main reason why most people suspect it could be staged is because the teen who filmed the incident is an aspiring filmmaker. Seventeen-year-old Kadejra Holmes told The Smoking Gun she didn't have anything to do with the attack and then took the video off YouTube. Her......

SHOP: Tonight head to Dumbo for an “Evening of Cheer,” where three neighborhood events coordinated by the Dumbo Improvement District will be taking place. "The night’s events combine Dumbo’s monthly cultural event, First Thursdays, with extended shopping hours and promotions by local retailers and the illumination of the Empire Stores in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park by famed lighting designer Brendon Boyd." 6pm // Various location details here EVENT: Tonight some experts gather around to celebrate......

Fans of the neo-Gilded Age New York fantasy show Gossip Girl are so going to love this news: the fictional grilled fontina cheese sandwich with truffle oil ordered by Serena van der Woodsen in the show’s pilot is now a real sandwich! Zagat’s website reports that the item is now permanently part of the bar menu at Gilt – the very location where cameras filmed actress Blake Lively being served the sandwich. Once just a......

The unofficial first and second rules of sane subway rides might be "Do not talk to anyone" and "Don't look anyone in the eye." The Smoking Gun found a crazy video of an adult being beat up by a group of teenage girls on an A train. The adult, who is white, was somehow roped into a shouty exchange with the girls, who are black, and high school student Kadejra Holmes filmed the exchange,......

As authorities investigate the murder of Fire Marshal Douglas Mercereau, found in his Staten Island home with three bullets in his head Sunday morning, his wife Janet Redmond-Mercereau as a suspect, though the police have declined to officially name anyone as a suspect. The couple had been having marriage problems - the Post describes her as being "estranged," though living in the same house. Redmond-Mercereau, a teacher at Tottenville High Scool, called 911 around 8:30AM,......

On Tuesday afternoon, 72-year-old Reinaldo Herrera was hanging Christmas lights outside his Westbury home and went inside to get more lights. Suddenly, a 21-year-old gang member stormed in, threatening him with a gun and demanded cash and jewelry. Somehow, Herrera managed to overpower the would-be robber; the senior said, "When he say, 'Give me the ring, give me the watch, give me the money,' I put my hands on him, strong, to the floor." He......

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......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Beginning at 10:30PM last night and through 5AM this morning, family, friend and other supporters gathered in Queens to remember Sean Bell, the 25-year-old man who was shot by undercover police the night before his wedding a year ago. Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell, told the crowd, "I want justice, but no matter what happens, it won't bring Sean back." The Reverend Al Sharpton, who also attended the overnight vigil, said, "This time a year ago,......

On November 25, 2006, groom-to-be Sean Bell and his friends were leaving the Kalua nightclub in Queens when undercover police confronted them. In the confusion that ensued (the police thinking the men were armed or were going to the car to retrieve a gun, uncertainty over whether the police identified themselves leading Bell and his friends to think they were being carjacked) five undercover cops fired 50 times at Bell's car. His friends Joseph......

Who knew thousands, if not millions, of New Yorkers would agree with presidential hopeful Fred Thompson on something? In this case, the former Senator and former Law & Order District Attorney was talking about Rudy Giuliani's reliance on touting his New York City credentials during a campaign stop in New Hampshire today. Thompson told a crowd at a gun store, Giuliani "relates everything to New York City. Well, New York City is not emblematic of......

Two men walking along the East 79th transverse near Fifth Avenue were robbed at gunpoint by four men around 7:15PM on Wednesday night. The victims, ages 34 and 38, gave up their wallets and a cellphone for the robbers, who are described as young "black males between 18 and 20" years old" who "fled in the direction of the Great Lawn." The 34-year-old victim spoke to the Daily News and explained he and his partner......

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......

A happy event turned violent early Sunday morning when the manager of a Brooklyn catering hall fired at three guests, and by the time the police caught a second shooter, one person was dead and four others were wounded. A baby shower at the El Barandillo banquet hall on Atlantic Avenue turned into a fight between members of the Bloods and Crips - all of whom were invited to the shower. El Barandillo manager Omar......

The New York Times examines the practice of handcuffing prisoners who have been shot by the police, just a few days after the death of Khiel Coppin. The mentally disturbed Brooklyn 18-year-old was handcuffed by cops after they shot him ten times, thinking he was armed with a gun. It turns out, Coppin was armed only with a hairbrush. According to the Times, the practice of handcuffing someone who is already prone and wounded is......

While the police don't recommend that store owners lash out at armed robbers, but that didn't stop one East New York bodega owner. WABC 7 reports that when a robber with a gun entered a bodega on Sutter Avenue last night, the workers beat him with a baseball bat. The robber was trapped because the owner closed the gate. Even though one shot was fired, the only injured person was the robber, who was "badly......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Utica Ave. in Brooklyn, an attempted bank robbery on East Fordham Rd. in the Bronx, and a large tree down on East 114th St. and 91st Ave. in Queens.. Buzz over the much-anticipated J.J. Abrams feature code-named "Cloverfield" has precipitated to something much more solid: a feature named "Cloverfield." The Internet's been speculating about the horror-thriller with a trailer that includes the decapitation of the Statue......

A few days after showing surveillance video of a robber holding up a number of stores, police have arrested the suspect. Brooklyn resident Herbert Rodriguez was charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in connection to 17 robberies, all below 23rd Street in Manhattan (there's a map at the end of this slideshow) over the past three months. In one video where the suspect robs a Murray Hill ice cream store, the bandana......

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......