Two children are recovering from gunshot wounds after being hit by stray bullets during separate incidents Saturday night. On President Street in Crown Heights, 10-year-old Denia Kearse (pictured) was enjoying a block party when shots rang out around 8 p.m. Her aunt tells channel 7, "Everybody heard pop, pop, pop, and it sounded like it was blocks away. And then, the next thing you know, my niece is bleeding." The stray bullet tore across her......

Late last night, livery cab driver Winston Frank was killed in a hit-and-run that police believe was preceded by a robbery. Frank, apparently an unlicensed driver, had picked up a fare in Ozone Park. While driving, police think he argued with female passenger in the front seat--and the woman pushed him out of the car. Halfway out of the car by his seat belt, Frank was then struck by a passing car; a witness told......

Damn teenagers. For years now, Astoria residents have been living in fear of rock-throwing punks who climb onto Amtrak’s railbed along the Hell Gate trestle and toss projectiles at their houses, cars and yards. Locals like Loretta Csikortos place the blame squarely at the foot of Amtrak, who she thinks should pay for repairs to her son’s Ford Mustang, which has a shattered windshield and dented trunk. Residents are calling on Amtrak to beef up......

If you watch just one Community Board Meeting video this summer, make it this one. Willets Point property owners who've been passionately protesting Mayor Bloomberg's controversial $3 billion plan to rezone the area (to make way for a hotel, convention center, offices and retail stores) have put together this video showing how the sausage gets made over at Community Board 7. Their gripping featurette focuses in on a contentious committee meeting that yielded a yes......

The Queens DA's office revealed a 19-year-old Queens resident hired as a contract employee at the U.S. Open was charged with falsely reporting an incident--actually three bomb threats. Apparently Mehmet Kadayifci, per WNBC, "pretended to be hearing impaired and used a special Web site to type three bogus claims between midnight and 1 a.m. about a bomb being inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium." (The website is to help deaf people make phone calls.) One note......

The police say a man fatally stabbed his roommate in Flushing, Queens. WABC 7 reports, "The 47-year-old suspect and his roommate had a dispute inside their Sanford Avenue apartment building just before midnight. " Apparently the suspected killer stabbed the victim once in their building's lobby. He later called 911 and waited for the police to arrive, and cops found the roommate's body in a pool of blood.......

One amateur Queens farmer has found herself standing in the shadows of a 6-foot-tall zucchini! The Daily News reports on Apollonia Castitlione's green thumb, and says she only used fertilizer and water to grow the massive fruit. She told the paper, "I've had my vegetable garden for 26 years, but I never saw anything so spectacular"...and it's still growing! At this rate, it could take out the world record holder, a 7-foot, 10-inch zucchini from......

The retired detective accused of being the "Bling Bandit" is awaiting a psychiatric evaluation, but Athelson Kelson's mother seems to confirm the "suicide-by-cop" hypothesis. Referring to her son's terminal liver cancer, she told the Daily News, "He just didn't want to live like that. He just wanted to die." Kelson allegedly held up banks in Queens and on Long Island, while making no attempt to disguise himself or to wear gloves--and wearing flashy jewelry, including......

The Queens DA's office says an Astoria landlord apparently stole his tenant's identity in order to rack up $50,000 worth of purchases. The Daily News says Jorgji Glekas went to the police after getting bills from credit card "accounts she hadn't opened - then grew suspicious when [landlord Phivos] Ioannou asked if she had received any mail that didn't belong to her." Ioannou used his tenant's name and Social security number to buy numerous items,......

Open up and say "awwww," the Queens Zoo has two new chocolate brown babydoll lambs! The impossibly adorable duo now reside in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, bringing the lamb population there to 18. The Queens Gazette reports that babydolls are the "oldest known purebred sheep in the world...an example of a breed that used to be very popular before the industrialization of livestock production caused it to become rare." No word on the twosomes names yet,......

Authorities have questioned a retired and respected NYPD detective of holding up banks in Queens and on Long Island. The suspect was dubbed the "Bling Bandit" by Newsday after surveillance footage showed "he repeatedly flashed an abundance of gold jewelry on both hands. " Athelson Kelson, a Vietnam veteran who worked on the Joint Terrorism task force, reportedly surrendered at a Queens precinct house last night, and Daily News sources say it seemed like he......

A man accused of stabbing his 21-year-old girlfriend to death over the weekend was arrested in Brownsville, Texas. U.S. Marshals had received information that 25-year-old Segundo Penafiel was on his way to Mexico, so they stopped and checked buses. Spokesman Deputy U.S. Marshal Alfredo Perez said, "Penafiel was the third person to walk off the bus, took one look at our Deputy U.S. Marshals and then tried to run away"--with Mexico just a few hundred......

Yesterday the HBO series Entourage, featuring friend of Gothamist Adrian Grenier, was filming in Queens (in the show, Vincent Chase & Co. are all childhood friends from the borough). Reportedly there was a neighborhood tot screaming and being calmed down by a PA, a slew of fans, a couple paparazzi, and Grenier was graciously giving the fans some face time. Even Kevin Connolly was on hand, despite police wanting to question him about a fight......

Early yesterday morning, an 18-year-old woman was attacked in the Richmond Hill section of Queens. WABC 7 reports the woman had been walking down a street when an man wielding a gun "took her to the back of a building where she was robbed and sexually assaulted." According to the Daily News, the victim ran back home and "hysterically pointed out her attacker to [her boyfriend] and his friends." The group tried to chase the......

Hey surfers and swimmers, this just in from the newswire: POSSIBLE SHARK SIGHTING*| ROCKAWAY BEACH| CLOSING SWIM AREAS AFTER REPORT FROM FISHERMAN FOR A SHARK SIGHTING. You've been warned, Queens. Though most sharks in the area turn out to be tiny, in 2005 Rockaway got a slightly larger creature. For those keeping track, the unofficial start to shark season this year was in July, when a 5-footer was spotted at Jones Beach. If this new......

Early this morning in East Elmhurst, Queens, a livery cab driver was shot in the face. WCBS 2 reports "someone posing as a customer hopped into a livery cab and shot the driver in the cheek." The victim, Jose Santacruz, works part-time for the Tulcingo car company (his other part-time job is as a cook in Manhattan) and managed to make calls over the radio for help. A dispatcher told the Daily News he sent......

Hey Queens residents, about that blackout two years ago that left thousands of you without electricity or hot water for nine sweltering days? Con Ed is sorry! Also, here's one hundred dollars off your next Con Ed bill. Happy? Don't do anything rash like switch to a different electric company, okay? (Hahaha!) City Room reports that Con Ed is finally sending out letters of apology for the disruption, which the company agreed to do as......

A toddler, who ACS had returned to his family in Queens just one month ago, was declared dead yesterday by authorities. It's unclear how Jaysha Brown died, but he was found with cuts, bruises, and bite marks as well as external injuries that appeared days old. The Daily News reports, "Investigators were trying to determine if the child was murdered - the victim of his mother, her boyfriend or, stunningly, his 5-year-old brother." The child's......

A corrections officer was seriously injured when a large tree fell on her yesterday afternoon. The incident occurred around 4:35 p.m., at Fresh Pond Road and Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. It's believed the tree was rotting, so when a train on the elevated track rumbled by, it finally fell. According to WABC 7, witnesses (the street was closed for a street fair) "saw the thick trunk breaking off, hitting the woman, who had been......

Last summer a rented garage on the outskirts of Queens, NY served as a workshop for a group of Trinidad teens living in the borough. They worked day and night on "enormous stereo systems jury rigged onto ordinary bmx bikes," with Randall Stevens on hand to document the creations, from scraps to mobile dance parties. The group is touted as America's first stereobike crew; Stevens's short film called Made in Queens and you can watch......

The Queens DA's press release gives some more details about the 18-year-old who fatally shot his cousin. Felix Cruz allegedly "pointed the firearm at her and pulled the trigger. The gun made a clicking noise and nothing happened. The defendant allegedly then pulled the trigger again, this time discharging a bullet that struck [Veronica] Cruz in the face, killing her." The Queens DA's office adds that Cruz tried to get rid of the gun by......

Photo courtesy Atomische. Angry opponents to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to develop 62 acres of poorly-maintained land in Willets Point, Queens disrupted a press conference yesterday held by city officials in Washington Square Park to tout the proposal. Councilman Hiram Monserrate, whose district includes Willets Point, led over two dozen protesters to the press conference, where they drowned out advocates for the plan, chanting “Justice for Willets Point!” According to the Times, the police refused......

Eighteen-year-old Felix Cruz was arrested and faces charges including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and evidence tampering in the death of his 18-year-old cousin in a Rockaway apartment. The victim, Veronica Cruz, who lived in Boston and had recently graduated high school, was shot in the head (Cruz used to live in Queens and was visiting her old neighborhood). Another relative told the Post, "From what I heard, it was a mistake. He was cleaning the......

The home of an acting Supreme Court Justice currently hearing domestic violence cases was hit by gunfire early yesterday morning. Bullets hit the dining room wall and an upstairs bedroom wall at Justice Fernando Camacho's Springfield Gardens house. He and his family were in Montauk at the time of the shooting; they actually sold the house but were awaiting bank approval of the buyers. The police are investigating whether the gunfire was meant for the......

A 21-year-old man has been arrested for fatally slashing his 32-year-old girlfriend in a Queens apartment. Veronica Rivera was pronounced dead at the scene, and police say she was killed in front of her 9-year-old and 6-month-old daughter after an argument with the baby's father, Pedro Ayala. Rivera's mother said her daughter had left Ayala twice and told the Post, "She was scared for his life. They moved into the basement together awhile ago, but......

The Post reported that, when comparing July 2008 figures to July 2007, foreclosures were up 67%. Here's how it broke down by borough: A 16% increase in the Bronx; up 63% in Brooklyn; up 7.6% in Manhattan (but a 55% increase between June and July of 2008); up 81% in Queens (half the foreclosures there were); and up 215% on Staten Island. The Post adds that Queens "appears to be at the epicenter of the......

The police released a sketch and surveillance video of the man believed to be involved in a series of sexual attacks in Queens, most near bus stops. While the suspect's face is not visible in the surveillance video, police are hoping someone will recognize the man's walk and mannerisms. In two incidents, the man, who has used a knife to threaten his victims, was wearing a hoodie and black Nike Air Force One sneakers. City......

A grand jury decided not to indict a man for fatally stabbing a 15-year-old girl in June. Winston Alladin had aroused the anger of bus passengers when he was angered by a woman and child who cut him in line and, per the Post, "spat racial epithets at the woman and other African-American passengers." A group of passenger had followed him out the bus, throwing objects at him, and Alladin claimed the death of Keyanna......

Yesterday morning, at the Rockaway Deli & Grocery in Queens, a customer apparently lost it and stabbed two employees. According to WABC 7, Ortho Arnold is seen on a surveillance tape getting his change and then spitting in the cashier's face: "As other nervous customers start leaving the store, Arnold pulls the knife." The victims, the owner's son and cousin, were able to fight him off with broomsticks. The owner said Arnold is a regular......

Just after 1 a.m., a woman managed to fight off a man who tried to grab her in the Cedar Manor neighborhood. According to WABC 7, the woman "screamed and fought him off before he ran away without harming her." The police have been investigating a series of sexual assaults, at least eight, in southern Queens over the past year. The police say the suspect approaches the victim, with a knife, and forces her into......