Hunts Point News: Santa Spotted in the Bronx

Hunts Point News: Santa Spotted in the Bronx: BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 12- Santa had a busy time in the Bronx last week. First he attended the annual lighting of the Parkc...

Santa Spotted in the Bronx

BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 12- Santa had a busy time in the Bronx last week. First he attended the annual lighting of the Parkchester Christmas tree at the Oval. The event, filled with local singers and dancers, was capped off with the

holiday lights inside Met Oval. Then Old St. Nick was on hand for the tree lighting at the Fordham BID.

Arthur Avenue kicked off the holiday season with a tree lighting and a visit from Santa. In addition, holiday carolers sang to inspire the crowd.

Hunts Point News: Woman pleads guilty to doggone assault on bus driv...

Hunts Point News: Woman pleads guilty to doggone assault on bus driv...: BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 4- District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced that a 19-year-old woman has been convicted of assaulting an...

Woman pleads guilty to doggone assault on bus driver

BRONX, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 4- District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced that a 19-year-old woman has been convicted of assaulting an MTA bus driver after the driver refused to allow the defendant’s dog to board the bus.

Steangeli Medina pled guilty to assault in the second degree, the top count in the indictment, before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango. Under the plea agreement Medina will be sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation.

Medina has also agreed to waive her right to appeal the conviction and will complete a mandatory anger management program. The judge also issued an eight-year order of protection, which prohibits Medina from having any contact with the bus driver.

On December 12, 2013, the defendant will surrender and be held without bail pending a sentencing date which will be set once the Department of Probation has prepared a pre-sentencing report.

The assault occurred on June 21, 2011 at a bus stop on East Fordham Road and Third Avenue when the defendant became enraged because bus operator Marlene Bien-Aime would not allow Medina’s dog to get on the bus without being in a pet carrier. Medina dragged the driver out of her seat, off the bus and onto the sidewalk where Medina struck the victim repeatedly.

As a result, the victim sustained extreme facial bruising and swelling, suffered partial vision loss, which has since been restored, and underwent surgery for injuries to her knee and shoulders. The trauma resulted in the bus driver being off the job on a medical leave for one year.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Hilary Chernin of the Trial Division.

Tags: Assault, Bus Driver, Dog

Hunts Point News: Fatal Plunge

Hunts Point News: Fatal Plunge:  3 Injured in Bruckner Crash     By David Greene   Police are investigating how a driver was sent over a highway divider to ...

Fatal Plunge

 3 Injured in Bruckner Crash

 

 

By David Greene

 

Police are investigating how a driver was sent over a highway divider to his death 100 feet below.

Police were called to the westbound lanes of the Bruckner Expressway at Austin Place at 6:39 a.m., on Sunday, November 24. Sources say a 1996 Toyota Camry broke down on the elevated roadway when it was struck by a gray 2010 Honda Insight. Abubakar Saleh, 46, of Brooklyn, was standing in front of his disabled vehicle when the speeding car slammed into the vehicle from behind.

Saleh was declared dead at the scene. His body would lay on the street below, under a sheet and laying next to a lone sneaker for several hours as police shutdown most of the upper and lower portions of the busy highway as the NYPD performed it's investigation.

An unidentified 22-year-old victim, who was inspecting the vehicle with Saleh at the time of the crash, was transported to Jacobi Hospital with serious head trauma and was removed in critical condition. A second passenger in the vehicle, an unidentified 15-year-old boy suffered minor injuries.

The driver of the Honda also suffered minor injuries.

Police have not yet released his name, but say that the driver stated he did not see the vehicle in time to stop and so far no charges have been filed, but the investigation into the crash continues.

Sources close to the investigation say the driver of the striking vehicle is an employee of the New York City Department of Sanitation, but was off-duty at the time of the crash.

The NYPD could not confirm a report that a second crash took place when a, "rubbernecking," driver looking at the accident, struck a marked NYPD SUV.

Back on December 4, 2009, Suejas Estrada was killed when she was ejected from the window of her SUV, off the elevated portion of the roadway after a 3-car collision that also involved NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw.

The site where Saleh died was steps away from where Abigail Lino, a young mother from Manhattan was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver on August 31. Lino had been attending an all-girls party at the clubhouse of the Black Falcon's motorcycle club when a partygoer yelled, "Gun," creating a panic, when Lino stepped into the street and was killed.

Police would later charge the driver in that crash.

Hunts Point News: Holiday Train Show Returns

Hunts Point News: Holiday Train Show Returns: (Photos by Seitu Oronde) BRONX, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 22- A critically acclaimed and always eagerly anticipated tradition, th...