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“He’s known to us in the subway system,” the chief said, adding that video from security cameras in the station had helped investigators identify Mr. Jones as the suspect. Being shoved suddenly on a subway platform in particular is a perennial urban nightmare. Through Oct. 15, there had been 15 people pushed off subway platforms in New York City this year, compared with 22 in the same period last year, the police said. In May, a woman was critically injured after a man shoved her head against a moving subway train at the Lexington Avenue/63rd Street station. The woman, Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy, 35, was partially paralyzed in the attack.

Persons: “, Jones, Emine Yilmaz Organizations: Bowery, Committee, Lexington Locations: New York City

☆ 2 Charged With Murder in Day Care Death of 1-Year-Old
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-17 | by ( Maria Cramer | More About Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

All three children showed symptoms of opioid exposure, the police said. Image Zoila Dominici with her 1-year-old son, Nicholas Feliz Dominici. Another 2-year-old-boy, who had left the small ground-floor day care center shortly after noon, was taken to a hospital after his mother noticed an unusual lethargy had replaced a toddler’s normal energy. “This crisis is real, and it is a real wake‑up call for individuals who have opioids or fentanyl in their homes,” Mayor Adams said. “The mere contact is deadly for an adult and it’s extremely deadly for a child.”

Persons: Nicholas Feliz, Nicholas, Joseph E, Kenny, —, Eric Adams, Ashwin Vasan, Mayor Adams, ” Organizations: Montefiore Medical, Police Locations: .

☆ Out the Window, Down a Knotted Sheet and Gone for a Month
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Maria Cramer | More About Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Yenchun Chen, a Queens man accused of trying to sell fentanyl and crystal methamphetamine to an undercover officer, was being held at Rikers Island last month when he complained about chest pains, according to authorities. He spent several days at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Midtown Manhattan, where he was guarded by two Department of Correction officers and received occasional visitors. On the afternoon of Aug. 9, according to the police, Mr. Chen — all 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds of him — slipped quietly away. Mr. Chen, 44, told guards that he needed to shower and they permitted him to bathe alone, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter. Five minutes later they checked on him, but the shower was empty, the window was open and a rope made of knotted sheets was dangling from it, the law enforcement official said.

Persons: Yenchun Chen, Sinai Beth, Chen —, —, Chen, ”, Joseph Kenny Organizations: of Correction Locations: Queens, Sinai, Sinai Beth Israel, Midtown Manhattan

Protesters were thousands-thick in Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan’s East Village when the police moved in with horses and nightsticks. The tactics were described by a labor leader as “an orgy of brutality” and brought a public outcry demanding that police officials be fired. This was not a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, or even the riot that erupted in the same park in 1988 as officers charged at protesters. This head-knocking happened during a demonstration by unemployed workers amid the financial panic of 1873. New York has long been one of the biggest stages for protest in the United States, with a vocal, sometimes volatile populace and a rich tradition of dissent.

Persons: ” Locations: Tompkins Square, Manhattan’s East, New York, United States

☆ N.Y.P.D.’s New Intelligence Chief Takes Reins of Secretive Unit
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( Maria Cramer | More About Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rebecca Weiner learned about catastrophic threats at an early age: She grew up in Santa Fe, N.M., near the cradle of the nuclear bomb. In college, Ms. Weiner studied the ethical questions that Manhattan Project scientists, and their wives, confronted as they devised the bombs that annihilated two Japanese cities, but that they hoped would “end war as we know it,” she said. Now, Ms. Weiner, 46, has been named the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, commanding about 1,500 people spread throughout the city. A lawyer and 17-year department veteran, Ms. Weiner is taking over a bureau that includes a counterterrorism unit created after the Sept. 11 attacks. Since its inception, the unit has helped foil a plan to kidnap an American-Iranian journalist and what officials say were dozens of terrorist plots.

Persons: Rebecca Weiner, Weiner, ” Organizations: Harvard, Manhattan Project, New York Police Locations: Santa Fe, Poland, New Mexico, American, Iranian

About 12:30 p.m. Friday, the New York Police Department’s entertainment unit saw that Kai Cenat, a social-media streamer who has more than six million followers, had said that he would be in Manhattan’s Union Square that day, ready to give away free PlayStation 5 consoles and other prizes to fans who showed up. The local precinct sent a few officers and supervisors. By 1:30 p.m., there were about 300 fans in Union Square. “Not a big crowd,” Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of the department, said at a news conference on Friday. “Something we’d expect for a social media event like this.”

Persons: Kai Cenat, ” Jeffrey Maddrey, ” Organizations: New York Police Locations: Union

☆ Prosecutors Identify Human Remains Found in 2011 Near Gilgo Beach
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Maria Cramer | More About Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A skull that was found in 2011 near Gilgo Beach on Long Island has been identified as that of a 34-year-old woman who went missing in 1996, the authorities said on Friday. The death of the woman, Karen Vergata, has not been linked to Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect who last month pleaded not guilty to killing three women whose bodies were found along the beach. The skull of Ms. Vergata, who investigators said had worked as an escort, was discovered on Tobay Beach around the same time that investigators discovered the remains of 11 other people along the stretch of the South Shore that includes nearby Gilgo Beach. Other remains belonging to Ms. Vergata had been found in Davis Park on Fire Island in April 1996. For years, she was known as “Fire Island Jane Doe” as the police worked to identify her.

Persons: Karen Vergata, Rex Heuermann, Heuermann, Vergata, Jane Doe ” Organizations: Authorities Locations: Gilgo Beach, Long, Tobay, Shore, Gilgo, Davis

Karen Pendergrass kept seeing the lanky boy walk by the lunchroom where she taught dance twice a week to eighth grade students in North Philadelphia. He would peer inside, then run away as soon as Ms. Pendergrass made eye contact. “You come peeking in my door one more time and you’re coming in my class,” Ms. Pendergrass told him. At 28, he was preparing to audition for “The Lion King,” one of his favorite Broadway musicals. They were blasting Beyoncé and dancing around the car when a group of about three young men told them to stop and hurled gay slurs at them.

Persons: Karen Pendergrass, Pendergrass, Ms, O’Shae Sibley, Sibley Organizations: ” Locations: North Philadelphia, Philadelphia, New York, Brooklyn

O’Shae Sibley was at a Brooklyn gas station with friends late Saturday night, filling up a car and blasting music by Beyoncé when a group of men approached and told them to stop dancing, according to friends. The men began using slurs and Mr. Sibley, 28, a gay man who was a professional dancer and choreographer, confronted them, according to his friends and a video of the altercation. The argument escalated and one man stabbed Mr. Sibley, according to the police. Otis Pena, one of Mr. Sibley’s best friends, pressed on his wound to stop the bleeding before he was taken to Maimonides Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. “They murdered him because he’s gay, because he stood up for his friends,” Mr. Pena said in a Facebook video that he posted hours after the killing on Coney Island Avenue in Midwood.

Persons: O’Shae Sibley, Sibley, Mr, Otis Pena, Sibley’s, “, ” Mr, Pena, ” Organizations: Maimonides Medical Locations: Brooklyn, Coney, Midwood

☆ Man Sentenced to 30 Months in Death of ‘The Wire’ Actor
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Maria Cramer | More About Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Carlos Macci spent decades struggling with addiction, selling heroin and fentanyl not to make money but to ease his own cravings, according to court records. He was part of a four-man crew selling drugs out of an apartment in Williamsburg, and on Sept. 5, 2021, he was with a man who sold a bag of fentanyl-laced heroin to the actor Michael K. Williams. Mr. Williams, who became famous for playing a charismatic stickup man named Omar Little on the HBO series “The Wire,” took the drugs back to his Brooklyn apartment and was found dead the following day, still wearing the same clothes he had on the day before. On Tuesday, Mr. Macci, now 72, walked into Federal District Court in Manhattan, his shoulders stooped, and apologized for his role in Mr. Williams’ death. The judge sentenced him to 30 months in prison.

Persons: Carlos Macci, Michael K, Williams, Omar Little, ”, Macci Organizations: HBO, Court Locations: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Manhattan

On Tuesday, she ordered the city to inform the U.S. attorney’s office and others how it planned to fix some of the pressing issues within the jails. Shortly after the judge’s order was made public, Mayor Adams delivered a strenuous defense of his management of the jails. “I am the best person in this administration to finally turn around the Department of Correction,” the mayor said during a news conference. Mr. Adams asked what had changed since then to suggest that the city should be stripped of its authority. In a series of recent reports, the first of them issued in May, Mr. Martin criticized Mr. Adams and his correction commissioner, Louis A. Molina, for hiding episodes of violence and negligence.

Persons: Swain’s, Mayor Adams, Adams, Williams, Steve J, Martin, Mr, Louis A, Molina Organizations: of Correction, Mr Locations: U.S, Rikers

Edward Caban, who grew up in the Bronx as the son of a Puerto Rican transit police detective, on Monday became the first Latino officer to lead the New York Police Department in its 177-year history. Mayor Eric Adams announced the appointment of Mr. Caban, who had been serving as acting police commissioner, in a morning news conference in front of the 40th Precinct in the South Bronx, where Mr. Caban began his career as a police officer in 1991. The move came just over a month after Commissioner Keechant Sewell, the first woman to serve in the role, resigned after only 18 months, frustrated in her attempts to act with autonomy. Mr. Caban, who had previously served as first deputy commissioner, had remained close to the mayor through Commissioner Sewell’s tenure. He will oversee roughly 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees.

Persons: Edward Caban, Eric Adams, Caban, Keechant Sewell, Sewell’s Organizations: New York Police Department Locations: Bronx, Puerto Rican, South Bronx

Edward Caban, the New York Police Department’s first deputy commissioner and an ally of Mayor Eric Adams, will become the interim head of the agency, the mayor said Friday. “There’s a natural process in place that the first deputy commissioner falls in line until we make a permanent announcement on who the commissioner is going to be,” Mr. Adams said during a radio appearance on 1010 WINS. “And we are going to find a suitable replacement.”The announcement coincided with the last day in office of Keechant L. Sewell, the department’s first Black and first female commissioner, who abruptly announced her resignation two weeks ago, after finding that her powers had been circumscribed by the mayor and his allies. Her departure is one of a wave of high-level officials exiting the still-young administration. The mayor has also lost or is losing his chief housing officer, Jessica Katz, in the midst of a housing crisis; his social services commissioner, Gary Jenkins, in the midst of a record-setting homelessness crisis; his chief counsel, his communications director, his chief efficiency officer, his buildings commissioner and his chief of staff.

Persons: Edward Caban, New York Police Department’s, Eric Adams, “, Mr, Adams, Sewell, Jessica Katz, Gary Jenkins Organizations: New York Police

☆ Violent Druggings in Lower Manhattan Left a Trail of Bodies, Police Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Allen was indicted in December in the overdose deaths of Nurbo Shera and Ardijan Berisha. Mr. Allen has been charged with 10 counts of second-degree murder — two for each of the five deaths. Mr. Shirley is charged in the overdose deaths of Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Rudnitsky. He was arraigned on Thursday afternoon, pleading not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, robbery, and grand larceny. The indictment described a series of texts about money between him and Mr. Allen.

Persons: Allen, Nurbo, Ardijan Berisha, Ms, Gallagher, Alexander Rudnitsky, Sadath Ahmed, Shirley, Mr, Ahmed, Rudnitsky, Brian Rodkey, “, ” Mr Organizations: Rutgers University Locations: Yonkers, N.Y, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx

☆ What a Commissioner’s Abrupt Exit Says About the N.Y.P.D. Under Adams
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Maria Cramer | Chelsia Rose Marcius | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Sewell, 51, is walking away from a department of 36,000 uniformed officers that saw the rate of major crimes like murders and shootings fall during her tenure. She added about 30 detectives to a sex-crimes unit that for years had been understaffed and overworked. Now, officers, department watchdogs and community leaders are trying to figure out what comes next. Perhaps the most daunting task will be serving a mayor — himself a former police captain — whose administration is believed to have meddled so much that Ms. Sewell felt she had to quit. While previous commissioners said they had to deal with some level of micromanagement, they said they were typically allowed to pick their own teams and rarely had to get approval for discretionary promotions.

Persons: Sewell, Caban, —

Around the same time, she was told she could not make discretionary promotions even at the lower levels of the department without getting clearance from the Adams administration, said Kenneth Corey, the former chief of the department, who worked under Ms. Sewell until he retired in November. “She was gradually being stripped of power,” he said. “They wonder what’s next,” he said. Ms. Sewell has not provided a reason for her decision to leave the job, which paid about $243,000 a year. On Tuesday afternoon, her office released a statement in which she thanked Mr. Adams — whom she had not mentioned in the internal email announcing her resignation — for the opportunity to lead the department.

Persons: Adams, Kenneth Corey, Sewell, “, ”, Corey, Ms, Mr, Sewell’s, what’s, Adams —, — Locations: ”

☆ N.Y.P.D. Commissioner Keechant Sewell to Resign
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Maria Cramer | Chelsia Rose Marcius | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Keechant Sewell, commissioner of the New York Police Department, said Monday she would resign after less than 18 months, giving no reason for the abrupt end to a tenure during which she won over many in the rank and file even as she jockeyed for position against other appointees and top officers. Ms. Sewell, who was appointed to her position by Mayor Eric Adams and started in 2022, was the first woman to head the nation’s largest police force. He had promised as a candidate to name a woman to lead the public safety agency where he was an officer for 22 years, giving her the power to rethink policing after bitter protests against police brutality and racism. The mayor said in a statement on Monday that Ms. Sewell had worked tirelessly and that “New Yorkers owe her a debt of gratitude.” But Ms. Sewell, in an email to the department announcing her resignation, did not mention the mayor at all. She did not say when she would be leaving, and the mayor did not say when a replacement would be chosen.

Persons: Keechant Sewell, Sewell, Eric Adams Organizations: New York Police Department

☆ Here’s how indictments work in the United States’ legal system.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Such panels, generally convened by judges at the request of prosecutors, meet for weeks, and can hear evidence in a variety of cases. The judge is not present during grand jury proceedings after the jurors are chosen, and jurors are able to ask the witnesses questions. Unlike a criminal trial, where a jury has to reach a unanimous verdict, a grand jury can issue an indictment with a simple majority. Grand jurors hear evidence and testimony only from prosecutors and the witnesses that they choose to present. They do not hear from the defense or usually from the person accused, unlike in a criminal trial where proceedings are adversarial.

Locations: United States

☆ What Happened When a Brooklyn Neighborhood Policed Itself for Five Days
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Maria Cramer | Amir Hamja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It had been a quiet April afternoon until about a dozen teenagers began running up Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville, yelling and cursing. They were chasing a girl of about 14 and it was clear they wanted a fight. Across Pitkin stood about half a dozen men, civilians in jeans and purple-and-gray sweatshirts. The teenagers slowed as they spotted the men, workers from an organization called Brownsville In Violence Out, who calmly waved them in different directions. They scattered as the girl fled down a side street.

Persons: “, ” Locations: Brownsville, Pitkin, New York

The moment was a culmination for Dev, who began competing in spelling bees in third grade and has studied 10 hours each day for the past year, according to his mother. When his parents rushed the stage to hug him, he felt overwhelmed, Dev said in an interview after the competition. A fan of Roger Federer and the movie “La La Land,” Dev had competed in previous national spelling bees, tying for 76th place in 2021 and 51st place in 2019. In 2021, organizers introduced a vocabulary round, in which spellers have to identify the correct meaning of the word. Harini Logan, an eighth grader from San Antonio, won by correctly spelling 21 words.

Persons: Dev, ”, Roger Federer, ” Dev, Harini Logan Locations: La, Largo, St . Petersburg, San Antonio

A meeting of the word panel was held on Sunday at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., to finalize the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee words. Here is a guide to the rules for the Scripps National Spelling Bee — and their small changes for this year’s competition, including a shorter allotted time to answer. A speller advances through them by correctly spelling a word and answering a multiple-choice question about its meaning. After the pronouncer says the spelling word, the clock starts. If one speller is correct, that person will be given a spelling word drawn from the Championship Word List.

Persons: spellers, Corrie Loeffler, “, ”, Jacques A . Bailly, Loeffler, Merriam, Johnny Diaz Organizations: Scripps, Spelling, Webster Locations: Oxon Hill, Md

☆ A 3-Month-Old Baby Was Found Dead Near a Bronx Expressway
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Maria Cramer | Hurubie Meko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The police arrested the parents of a 3-month-old girl who was found dead in the woods near a Bronx highway on Sunday night. The baby, whom the police identified as Genevieve Comager, was pronounced dead at the scene, a wooded, trash-strewn area near West 161st Street and the Major Deegan Expressway, the police said. Genevieve’s father, Damion Comager, 23, was arrested on Monday night and charged with murder, manslaughter and concealment of a human corpse. The baby’s mother, Ivana Paolozzi, 20, was also arrested and charged with concealment of a human corpse and obstructing governmental administration, according to the police. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office said the cause of the baby’s death was still under investigation on Monday evening.

☆ At Harlem Funeral for Jordan Neely, an Outpouring of Grief
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Maria Cramer | Hurubie Meko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jordan Neely spent the last few weeks of his life riding the subways of New York, hungry, desperate and alone. But at his funeral on Friday at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem, hundreds gathered to mourn him, including friends, family members, prominent Democratic politicians and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered his eulogy, in a public outpouring of grief for a man who spent his final days in solitude and anonymity. It has sparked debate between those who believe that the man who killed Mr. Neely, Daniel Penny, responded with violent vigilantism to a person who needed help, and those who believe he was trying to stop a threat. And it has raised questions about safety on the subway and the care provided to homeless and mentally ill people living in the city.

☆ Jordan Neely Will Be Mourned at Funeral in Harlem
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Maria Cramer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jordan Neely spent the last few weeks of his life riding the subways of New York, hungry, desperate and alone. At his funeral on Friday, which will be held at 11 a.m. at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem, friends and family members will gather to mourn him. The May 1 killing of Mr. Neely, who the police said had been acting in a “hostile and erratic manner” on an F train before another subway rider placed him in a chokehold for several minutes, quickly divided political leaders and led to protests around the city. It has sparked debate around the country between those who believe the man who killed Mr. Neely, Daniel Penny, responded with violent vigilantism to a person who needed help, and those who believe he acted because he was trying to stop a threat. And it has raised questions about safety on the subway and the care provided to homeless and mentally ill people living in the city.

11 a.m. Stroll through a former zooThe Palermo neighborhood already had three sprawling gardens within walking distance of one another: Jardín Japones Jardín Botánico and Parque El Rosedal . Once it was the site of a grand, and very sad, city zoo, where iron cages kept lions, tigers and chimpanzees in cruelly small spaces. The zoo closed in 2016, and since then, the new owners have been converting it into a peaceful nature preserve, where peacocks and Patagonian maras — native, fleet-footed rodents — roam free. The zoo’s gorgeous, antique buildings also remain, their stateliness now an elegant contrast to the wild native plants and brush growing along footpaths. Entry is free.

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