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 damaged door by dhfdz on Flickr Around 3:45 a.m., a device exploded outside the military recruiting center in Times Square. No one was injured, but a glass entryway was shattered. The streets around Times Square were shut down (now traffic can pass through) and subway service passed through the Times Square station without stopping (it's back to normal now), as authorities investigated the scene. WNBC reports police were searching for a "suspect......

After the city was moved by the story of a baby abandoned in the backseat of a livery cab and how the driver dropped off the baby at a fire house, prompting the police and media to look for the baby's relatives, it turns out the livery cab driver was involved in the abandonment scheme. Driver Klever Sailema was arrested today, as were another man and woman. Oh, no. According to the police, "Sailema was......

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......

Leonard Levitt, a veteran journalist who spent 10 years covering the NYPD for Newsday and now writes at his own website, NYPD Confidential, is suing the NYPD over its refusal to grant him a press pass. In this video, Levitt explains how the NYPD's action are "strictly retaliatory," because of his past writing exposing NYPD issues. Levitt notes that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly actually complained to Newsday editors about his coverage, not even complaining......

Update: Police have arrested David Tarloff, a Queens resident and former patient of Shinbach's, for Faughey's murder. The Post reports Tarloff, described as overweight with a bald spot by neighbors, has a history of violent crime. Apparently fingerprints found on suitcases left at the crime scene led the police to Tarloff. Earlier: As the family and friends prepare to say good-bye at a funeral for psychologist Kathryn Faughey today, the police have been questioning a......

The Queens DA's office and NYPD revealed new details about the killing of a Queens dentist. and why his estranged wife was arrested for murder and conspiracy. Daniel Malakov, who had been fighting with wife Dr. Mazultov Borukhova over custody of their young daughter, was gunned down at a playground last October when taking the 4-year-old to his wife for visitation. Borukhova was arrested Thursday night, months after her uncle by marriage, Mikahil Mallayev, was......

Sixty-two men associated with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families were arrested yesterday in a federal, state and local coordinated sweep in the New York region. A number of Gambino-related arrests were also made in Italy, and authorities have described this as the biggest mob bust in decades. Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said, "Our goal is and always has been simple: to dismantle the Gambino organized-crime family in a coordinated and consistent......

Sad use of our flag. [cropped], by S.D. at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at 104th Ave. and Remington St. in Queens, a bank robbery on Lexington Ave. and 45th St. in Manhattan, and a gas main break on Van Siclen Ave. in Brooklyn.Midtown Lunch considers why it was left off the positive press clippings wall of the new Goodburger.New York Shitty wonders about these Bed-Stuy guard dogs - they only......

Photograph of MTA police K9 team by Diane Bondareff/AP Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced New York City will receive $153 million - up from last year's $61 million - in transit security grants. Wow - all we can do is remember Chertoff's 2005 remark, when trying discussing how security funding would be allocated, "The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the......

The hits keep coming for the NYPD. Yesterday, federal prosecutors accused a Brooklyn detective of drug trafficking. The indictment (you can read it here) claims Batista would leak law enforcement information to a cocaine ring that also engaged in violence. Another cop, Sergeant Henry Conde in internal affairs (!), was indicted for telling Batista that he was being probed. Batista, who worked out of the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn, pleaded "absolutely not guilty" and his......

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,......

After intense speculation about why the masseuse who discovered Heath Ledger's body last Tuesday called actress Mary-Kate Olsen multiple times, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke to reporters yesterday to clear the air. Kelly said, "We believe that of the three phone calls by the masseuse to Mary-Kate Olsen, only one got through. That call was 99 seconds long." Commissioner Kelly further emphasized, "There is absolutely no indication that investigators were going to speak to Mary-Kate......

Early this morning, a 30-year-old man was shot dead outside a bar-restaurant in Long Island City. Joseph Prince, who was found with two gun shots in his head, had been attending a friend's prison release party. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said a fight that started at La Familia Bar and Restaurant on 44th Drive and moved to the street, where people started to throw bottles at each other. The Daily News reports that shell casings......

Just a days before the Florida primary, someone gave the New York Times a 1998 NYPD memorandum advising Mayor Giuliani that the department felt locating the city's emergency command center in 7 World Trade Center was not a very good idea. The eight page memo was written by a panel of police experts with help from the Secret Service. Its conclusions were overruled by Giuliani and the command center was destroyed on September 11 as......

The NY Times' editorial board has made its endorsements for the upcoming primaries. While the Times' selection of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama is interesting (the Times cites experience), we're very taken with the editorial about the Republican candidates. The Times thinks John McCain is the best Republican candidate and notes some problems with him. But the heart of the editorial is an evisceration of former mayor Rudy Giuliani:Why, as a New York-based paper, are......

No arrests have been made, but a violent incident in Times Square originating at karaoke nightclub early Monday Spotlight LiveSpotlight Live resulted in the death of one man and the injury or hospitalization six others last night. A coat-check dispute, led to the ejection of a number of patrons and resulted in a deadly brawl. The restaurant's spokesman said that patrons who had been arguing and then got into a shoving match were asked to......

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has ordered a revision to the NYPD's appearance guidelines and facial hair on cops is for the most part forbidden. No full beards, no goatees, no chinstrap beards, and no highly sculpted facial hair patterns. Mustaches, of course, are still acceptable. Undercover cops are allowed to retain whatever facial hair they choose. Uniformed officers found to be insufficiently clean shaven could face a formal infraction report or the loss of a......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible abduction on Warwick St. and Livonia Ave. in Brooklyn, a police involved shooting on West Kingsbridge Rd. in the Bronx, and an abduction on 33rd St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan. A contestant on Deal or No Deal from Bayonne, NJ tells host Howie Mandel that the godawful smell around there is from the dump on Staten Island. Residents of Richmond County are not amused. Two pitbulls,......

The Post has fun with a story about a robbery at a Brooklyn grocery, as a man stole a number of salamis and was trying to spirit them out in his clothes. Of course, this earns the headline "WURST-CASE SCENARIO FOR THIEF: COPS." Orlando Martinez was arrested after putting seven salamis "into his trousers and up his sleeves" at a Brownsville Western Beef on Sunday. The assistant manager saw the salami smuggling and confronted Martinez,......

Staten Island's Ninja Burglar struck again late last week, slipping furtively and unseen into a doctor's home on Melbourn Rd. in the Castleton Corners section of the borough. No one was home at the time and he scored big in his 19th break-in since May of last year, making off with $20,000 in jewelry. The theft comes just a little over a month after the man in black struck twice in quick succession in......

NYPD Transportation Chief Michael Scagnelli likes to bring a little nature into his city office, in the form of big stuffed game he's hunted around the world. The Daily News reports on his collection of animal trophies, and police commissioner Raymond Kelly's order to remove them from headquarters."Going to his office was like going to the Museum of Natural History. And it wasn't just his private office, it was in the outer office, too, where......

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......

New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly took a shot at the three men who hijacked a FedEx truck while posing as police by calling the case not so much an incident of police impersonation, as "criminal impersonation." The freight truck was found just hours after it was stolen with all of its contents intact. The robbers could not manage to open the locked containers in the trailer and just abandoned it in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.......

Former New York City Mayor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is finding that his campaign for highest office is foundering in Florida--the state that his campaign has identified as a crucial crucible. The primary vote in the Sunshine State will occur on Jan. 29, and with approximately six weeks to go, Rudy's trailing competitors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. According to a survey conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen, Romney is tallying 27% support, followed by......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: shots fired on 166th St. and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, a pedestrian struck at Berry St. and Division Ave. in Brooklyn, and a found body on Richmond Valley and Arthur Kill on Staten Island. Still searching for the Staten Island ninja burglar, police questioned New York Post photographer Ron Romano because of his ninja-like ability to tightrope walk. A huge hole in the middle of Brooklyn's Pacific......

Tim Russert has invited all the presidential candidates to appear on Meet the Press, and yesterday former Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared. We imagine many New Yorkers watching the program gnashed their teeth and/or swore at the TV (we happened to do both), as Giuliani tried to answer questions ranging from the straightforward (Giuliani's Iowa poll numbers, Russert asked, "Fifth place, is that a problem?") to the interesting (Russert on Giuliani's consulting business: "A Las......

So if you remember correctly, Grand Theft Auto IV, the New York City crime simulator, was supposed to be in stores by now. But between production delays and the million other great games this season to compete with, they decided to just push it back till next Spring and get it right. But just in case you've you've still got an itch for some Eastern European organized crime this holiday season, here's a brand......

We've admired the Wee Ninja from Shawnimals ever since we were looking for a visual to go with posts about the Staten Island Ninja Burglar. Wee Ninja is actually not a criminal in Shawn Smith's Ninjatown - Wee Ninjas only train, harvest Stealth Wheart, and fight the Wee Devils (or something along those lines). And now it turns out that there's an event at My Plastic Heart on Forsyth Street this Friday, Keep it......

The spicy story of the cop fired after testing positive on a drug test - after unkowingly eating a meatball spiked with pot - returns with a lawsuit! Anthony Chiofalo, a 22-year veteran of the NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, is suing to be reinstated, claiming his termination was "arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and unconstitutional." Back in 2005, Chiofalo was shocked when he tested positive for marijuana during a drug test. Then it turned out his......