MANHATTAN
A robber walked into an Upper East Side bank, slipped a note demanding money to a teller and escaped with $12,400 yesterday, police said. The robbery occurred about 9 a.m. at a Citibank branch on 72nd Street near Lexington Avenue. The thief was described as a black man in his 40s.
A teenager was shot and killed in a dispute with gun-toting assailants in Washington Heights, police said yesterday. The gunplay broke out at about 8 p.m. Wednesday at the corner of 149th Street and Broadway, where two or three attackers approached Yeudi Delacruz, 17, and shot him in the head. He was taken to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators were hunting for the gunmen and a motive.
Cops are investigating a possible bias incident on the Upper East Side in which racial epithets were scrawled in a letter sent to the 19th Precinct station house. The letter was discovered at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the station house on East 67th Street.
BRONX An early-morning raid by 49th Precinct cops in the Allerton section yielded three guns and a quantity of crack, authorities said.
Shortly before 6:30 a.m., cops executed a search warrant at a building on Adee Avenue and arrested two people on weapons and drug charges.
Ricardo Torres, 34, and Bernice Brathwaite, 26, were arrested for having two 9mm handguns, a sawed off-shotgun, a smoke grenade, crack and drug paraphernalia, cops said.
The death of a 22-year-old man shot in the head near the Bruckner Expressway has been reclassified as a homicide, police said yesterday. Jaime Richetti was wounded in front of an apartment building at Thieriot and Lafayette avenues on Nov. 3. He was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in critical condition, and died Wednesday from his injuries.
A man was found dead inside a truck yesterday in University Heights, police said. The discovery was made at about 6 a.m. on Saratoga Avenue near Webb Avenue, where the unidentified man in his 20s was discovered slumped under the dashboard of a stolen Tahoe truck, a police source said. The source said the incident might be drug-related because a hypodermic needle was found near the body.
A 72-year-old man crossing the Grand Concourse was struck and critically injured by a Fire Department vehicle, officials said. Joseph Nugent was crossing at 204th Street at 9:40 a.m. when he stepped off a median into the path of a Fire Department maintenance van heading to its base at Jacobi Hospital. Nugent was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was being treated for head injuries. Investigators say the incident was an accident.
bROOKLYN
A teen gunman and a cop impersonator were arrested after one fired shots and the other falsely reported that an officer was in need of assistance, police said yesterday. The incident occurred about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when police communications received a call from Steve MacDuffie, 33, that several shots were fired on Ralph Avenue and Prospect Place. Cops responded to the scene and canvassed the area, leading to the arrest of Ralph Moore. Police said the 17-year-old was found with a .38 caliber gun on him and charged him with criminal possession of a weapon. The investigation also uncovered that somebody had radioed in a false police report, bringing cops to a barbershop on Ralph Avenue where they found MacDuffie. He said he used a radio transmitter that allowed him to talk over restricted police frequencies, cops said. MacDuffie was charged with criminal impersonation and obstructing governmental administration.
Two teenagers stabbed a young man during a robbery yesterday at John Dewey HS in Gravesend, police said. The violence began at around noon on Avenue X near West 11th Street where two thugs, ages 17 to 18, stabbed a 16-year-old twice in the right arm with a kitchen knife, cops said. The assailants then fled with the victim’s jacket and wallet containing $5 and a MetroCard, probers reported. The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to Coney Island Hospital in stable condition.
A 65-year-old man died yesterday after he was found unconscious at his Bensonhurst apartment building, police said. Yuen Kwun Lee was discovered lying in a driveway bleeding from his ear at around 8:30 p.m. on 61st Street near 23rd Avenue, cops said. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Investigators said Lee had apparently fallen.
A 20-year-old man was arrested yesterday in the Oct. 27 shooting death of a teenager, police said. The violence occurred about 2 a.m. in the lobby of an apartment building on Sands Street near Navy Street where Tuson Betts pulled a gun and shot 17-year-old Lucas Rodriguez several times, police said. Rodriguez was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he pronounced dead. Charges against Tuson were pending.
Cops are hunting for a gun-toting assailant who shot and killed a 20-year-old man in Ocean Hill. The incident occurred Wednesday about 11:30 p.m. on Saratoga Avenue near Hancock Street, where an unidentified man pulled a gun and shot Neville Pittman in the head, cops said. Pittman was pronounced dead at the scene.
QUEENS
An FDNY lieutenant was hospitalized with serious burns sustained yesterday while battling a fire that erupted inside the basement of a private house in the Jamaica section. The blaze broke out at 2:34 p.m. and was brought under control about an hour later. About 106 firefighters and 25 pieces of equipment were sent to the scene, an FDNY spokesman said. The lieutenant, who suffered burns to his hands, arms and shoulders, was in critical condition at Nassau University Medical Center.
An 18-year-old Corona woman was found dead yesterday afternoon, hanging in her bedroom closet, police said.
Sources say Teresa Hangan, of Calloway Street, is believed to have committed suicide.