Monday, July 22, 2019

BRONX WOMAN INDICTED FOR STABBING HER TWO YOUNG CHILDREN


Defendant Used Razor to Slash Their Necks; Abandoned Wounded Children On Street  

  Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx woman has been indicted in the stabbings of her two-year-old daughter and six-year-old son. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant allegedly slashed her two young children and then left them on the street while they were bleeding profusely. Within minutes after the attack, she allegedly walked into the 42nd Precinct and told Police Officers to arrest her because she had committed a crime.”

 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Shanice Martin, 24, of 2140 Seward Avenue, was arraigned today on two counts of Attempted Murder in the second degree, four counts of first-degree Assault, six counts of second-degree Assault, Criminal Possession of a Weapon, and two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Lester Adler. Remand was continued and the defendant is due back in court on October 9, 2019.

 According to the investigation, on the evening of April 27, 2019 at the corner of Brook Avenue and Washington Avenue, the defendant struggled with her son and then cut his throat with a razor, leaving him with a deep laceration. She then turned to her toddler daughter and cut her in the neck and her side. Martin walked away from the scene and left the children lying on the sidewalk, bleeding profusely. A passerby flagged down NYPD Officers and the children were taken to Lincoln Hospital where doctors performed life-saving surgeries. They underwent further treatment at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and were discharged about two weeks after the incident.

 On June 14, 2019, the defendant’s son, Tyzavier Martin, collapsed in his school and died. Autopsy results are pending, and the investigation is continuing regarding additional charges. 

 District Attorney Clark thanked Officers in NYPD Housing Police Service Area 7, the 42nd Precinct and the Bronx Child Abuse Squad for their assistance in the investigation, specifically PSA 7 Police Officers John Liska and Jonathan Martinez, Police Officer John Paulino of the 42nd Precinct and Detective Timothy Hoffman of the Bronx Child Abuse Squad.

 An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.

BRONX MAN SENTENCED TO 45 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR FATALLY SHOOTING A MAN AND WOUNDING ANOTHER


Jury Convicted Defendant in 2017 Shooting

 Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been sentenced to 45 years to life in prison after a jury convicted him for second-degree Murder, Attempted Murder in the second degree, and second-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the shooting of two men in 2017. 

 District Attorney Clark said, “The defendant caused the death of a young man and shot the surviving victim in the face and chest. I hope the jury’s verdict, and this prison sentence, send a clear message that we will not tolerate gun violence.”

 District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Divine Fredericks, 29, of 525 Rosedale Avenue, was sentenced today to 45 years to life in prison by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Margaret Clancy. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for second-degree Murder, 20 years to life in prison for the Attempted Murder charge, to be served consecutively, and 16 years to life in prison for the Criminal Possession of Weapon charge, to be served concurrently. He was found guilty by a jury on June 13, 2019.

 According to the investigation, about 4 a.m. on July 1, 2017, inside an SUV on Commonwealth Avenue, the defendant shot Tyreek Simmons in the back of the head, causing his death, and shot Tyric Butler in the face. The defendant then fired shots into the vehicle, striking Butler in the chest. The defendant then fled to Georgia and was arrested approximately a month after the incident.

 District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detective Felix Delcarpio, BXDA Detective Investigators Anthony Saldarriaga and Nicholas Cavalcanti for their assistance in the investigation.


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Hikes start at 2pm: Hikers will have the option to go on a 4-5 mile hike throughout the park OR a 2 mile leisurely nature or history hikes. All hikes will be led by guides and take about 2 hours. All registered participants will receive a VCPA t-shirt.

Oktoberfest is from 4-7pm: Attendees will receive a Hike-toberfest Souvenir Mug, eat German Food by Loreley Restaurant & Biergarten and enjoy local beers served by the Bronx Beer Hall. Yard games will be setup to challenge your friends as you hang out on the Van Cortlandt House Museum Lawn.

Tickets on sale now and use discount code “Early Bird Special” for 10% off through August 23rd.  

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Van Cortlandt Park Alliance
80 Van Cortlandt Park South, Ste. E1
Bronx, NY 10463
www.vancortlandt.org

*The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park and the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy have spent the last two years working to create the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, a superior stewardship organization to guide the future of Van Cortlandt Park and the implementation of the 2034 Master Plan. For years, the Friends and the Conservancy have worked independently to restore, beautify, and support free programming in Van Cortlandt Park, the crown jewel of the Bronx. Our shared interests have now led us to combine our efforts. In the coming months, we will be officially launching the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance.
 

Michael Blake for Congress - It is time to impeach President Trump




After reading portions of what is publicly available from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s exhaustive 448-page report, speaking to lawyers with federal experience, and engaging with leaders on both sides of the aisle, I’ve been reflecting on how Congress must hold President Trump accountable. In light of these facts, the President’s devastating policy actions, and his explicit racism, sexism, homophobia and utter disrespect for most Americans, I have concluded that the House of Representatives should initiate impeachment proceedings against President Trump. 
  
It saddens me to write these words as an American and a public servant. I have arrived at this decision after careful analysis and consideration. I worked in the White House for President Obama, and I believe that talk of impeachment should not be thrown around casually. It must not be used for political points, but rather, only in extreme circumstances. 
  
I have published a piece explaining why I believe Congress should begin impeachment proceedings here
  
I’m running for Congress because the people of The Bronx and the United States of America deserve a new beginning. We all deserve bold, transformational change. It starts with holding President Trump accountable. 
  
Thank you, 
  
Michael Blake   
 



Info & RSVP
718-828-3900
or

Tuesday, July 23, 2019
6:00-8:00pm
doors open at 5:30pm
Residence Inn by Marriott
2nd Floor Conference Room
1776 Eastchester Road
Bronx, NY 10461

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MR. MAYOR: THE BUCK STOPS WHERE?

What You Should Know
By Councilman Rev. Ruben Diaz
District 18, Bronx County

You should know that while many New Yorkers are still fuming over the crippling subway suspension during July 19th’s evening rush hour on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and the Grand Central-42nd Street S lines, plans are being made to reduce bus service in our nation’s poorest Congressional district by eliminating nine stops along the BX5 bus route.
 

It is important for you to know that the people who will be affected by this reduction in bus service on the BX5 include our senior citizens, disabled persons, the residents of Lafayette Estates, NYCHA Castle Hill residents, Soundview area residents going to and from work, children headed to school, as well as moms and dads with baby strollers who will have to walk even further to the nearest bus stop.
 
These are the following stops that the MTA “geniuses” are proposing to be removed:

Story Ave/Colgate Ave/ North
Story Ave/Evergreen Ave/ South
Story Ave/Nobel Ave / North
Story Ave/Soundview Ave / South
Story Ave/Taylor Ave/ North
Story Ave/Taylor Ave/South
Story Ave/Boynton Ave/ North
Bruckner Blvd /Castle Hill Ave/ North
Bruckner Blvd/Havemeyer Ave/ North

The supposed reasoning behind the removal of these nine stops on the BX5 is to “improve reliability and bus speed on the route.” What nonsense!

MTA’s proposed plan to remove these nine stops is unacceptable! What these plans fail to address is the creation of 435 brand new apartment units directly along the BX5 route. There will be an increased population of nearly 1,200 people who will surely need transportation service, yet the MTA is suggesting the removal of a bus stop directly in front of the new development. This plan also fails to mention to near completion of York Studios, one of the east coast’s largest production studios, also directly along the BX5’s bus route.
 

With a guaranteed increase in population and ridership, why should my constituents who rely upon the BX5 bus have to be further inconvenienced by the elimination of these bus stops during heat-waves, snowstorms, rainy days or any other days?
  

In light of all of the finger-pointing we all saw from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio during Friday’s subway meltdown, I expect him to accept responsibility for any plans by the MTA to reduce BX5 bus service and reverse those plans because our community doesn’t deserve reduction in basic service. The buck stops with you Mr. Mayor.
 

Mr. Mayor, could it be people in the South Bronx are not as important to you as the affluent folks who live along the L-line? After all, they effectively reversed the decision to reduce the L-line’s service. It is unfair to deny basic municipal service to those who do not have alternatives.
 

I am Reverend Rubén Díaz, Sr. and this is what you should know.

Mayor de Blasio on Con Edison Problems


  I want to give all New Yorkers an update on the situation with our electric grid. We’re here at OEM Command Post. It’s been active since last evening. I want to thank all of the first responders who did extraordinary work last night and overnight securing the situation here in communities in Brooklyn. And I am surrounded by leakers of key agencies – Emergency Management, NYPD, FDNY, including EMS of course, and the State Police. I want to thank all of them for all that they did and all that the members of their team did. So, let me give you some updates.

We’ve gotten information from Con Ed. I want to say at the outset, I am extremely disappointed with Con Ed. They have been giving us consistently inconsistent information over these last days. There’s a bigger problem here we have got to resolve with Con Ed because this was a situation we all saw coming, and they don’t have any good answers yet as to why this happened and why it was not prevented. But I’ll come to that again in a moment.

I will give you the information they are giving us but everyone should take it with a grain of salt at this point. Right now we have about 19,000 Con Ed customers without power citywide. About 13,000 of them are in this area of Brooklyn and that includes the neighborhoods of Canarsie, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, Flatlands, and part of East Flatbush. Because Con Ed chose to take this action to take these neighborhoods off the grid, to take their power away, we had to immediately deploy first responders to address the situation because Con Ed’s decision occurred just as it was getting dark which meant there were real safety and security issues that had to be addressed.

NYPD deployed over 200 additional officers to the area. I want to commend the NYPD and also the residents of the neighborhood for the way they handled things. As of this moment, the information we have in these affected neighborhoods in Brooklyn – there were no arrests, no summonses, no reports of any problems at all. More than half of the traffic lights, so far, have been restored. So, when this power was taken down it affected traffic lights, it affected streets lamps, but now more than half of the traffic lights have been restored. There are a number of additional traffic agents out to help traffic keep going until all the traffic lights are restored.

I want to thank our colleagues from the State Police. They did a great job. They came in and helped out quite a bit. I want to thank them for their cooperation and their involvement in helping to address this. I also want to thank FDNY for getting out not only in force to address any potential situations but proactively going to the homes of folks who are vulnerable. For example, folks who had breathing issues who were on ventilators and needed assistance to make sure that they were getting the help they needed. I also want to note that OEM set up an emergency shelter with Red Cross in case anybody needed to get to a safe location – thank them for that.

On the issue of Con Ed, whereas a week ago we had a situation that came out of nowhere, we still don’t even have answers from what happened a week ago Saturday in Manhattan. I have asked Con Ed repeatedly to tell us what happened, why it happened, how they are taking steps to make sure it won’t happen again. They have not given me a good answer. This situation in Brooklyn came at the very tail end of the heat emergency. So, obviously, Con Ed knew they were dealing with an extraordinary situation. Once again I spoke to the Con Ed president last night. I spoke to him this morning – no answers whatsoever as to why this happened and what is being done to ensure it will not happen again. This was obviously a predictable situation and therefore preventable.

What we’re getting continually is no clarity, no answers, no real timelines from Con Ed. So, at this point, you know, I said earlier in the week that I was having trouble trusting them. I can’t trust them at this point because I’m not getting any real answers and they have let New Yorkers down once again. It’s very clear there needs to be a full investigation into what happened not only last Saturday but what happened last night. It’s very clear we have to question whether Con Ed, as its structured now, can do the job going forward or whether we need to go to an entirely different approach. So, I’m calling for a full investigation and further that we examine whether we need a new entity to handle this situation going forward because at this point I do not have faith in Con Edison.

Con Ed is a private company that is heavily regulated but they are still a private company and they’re not accountable to the public in the way a public agency would be. You know, the Department of Environmental Protection provides water to the people of New York City. If at some point the water was shut off, we, the City government, would have to provide immediate answers. We’d have to show people that it was being fixed and we knew exactly why it happened and exactly how it would not happen again. Con Ed is very haughty about this. They don’t give real answers and they don’t feel they have to. So, I think it begs the question of whether a private company should continue to provide a service if they are not accountable to the public.

“Thousands of Con Edison customers are still without power. After two massive outages in eight days, New Yorkers are out of patience and have lost trust in Con Ed’s ability to provide a basic service. With severe storms tonight, we are mobilized in case even more New Yorkers lose power.

“City agencies are on the ground in affected neighborhoods in force to protect New Yorkers. In the hardest hit area of Brooklyn, we have deployed 200 NYPD personnel to patrol the streets and direct traffic, have 71 light towers ready to provide visibility throughout the night, and opened an emergency shelter for anyone in need. I have directed the First Deputy Mayor, Deputy Mayor for Operations, NYC Emergency Management and the Office of Sustainability to expand their ongoing review to include this weekend’s outages to get to the bottom of these failures.”