Bomb squad technicians today destroyed 5,000 pounds of illegal fireworks -- ranging in size from sparklers to professional pyrotechnics -- ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
"We want everyone to enjoy the Fourth in the city, but fireworks in the hands of an amateur are extremely dangerous and illegal,” said Mayor Bloomberg.
Police says they've busted 70 individuals and seized six vehicles in connection with the transport of illegal fireworks in a massive, city-wide crackdown.
FDNY Fire Marshals in the Firework Enforcement Unit claim to have made 20 arrests, and have seized 300 fireworks cases worth more than $25,000.
“For the last several years, we have been confiscating fireworks, seizing the vehicles of those transporting them, and making arrests,” said Police Commissioner Kelly.
“These enforcement measures appear to be working, as seizures of fireworks are down again this year compared with this time last year. We encourage everyone to celebrate safely, and have a happy Fourth of July.”
A city firefighter was busted early Friday for buying two teens beer and then exposing himself in front of the boys on a Queens street, sources told the Daily News.
Michael Taggart, 48, allegedly drank the alcohol with the 14-year-old boys before he exposed his penis to the teens on 64th Ave. in Oakland Gardens about 2 a.m., the sources said.
Taggart, a 15-year FDNY veteran, was hit with a slew of charges that include unlawfully dealing a child alcohol, public lewdness and endangering the welfare of a child.
FDNY officials said Taggart, who is assigned to Engine 326 in Queens, was suspended without pay for 30 days following his arrest.
An NYPD van jumped a curb and struck and killed a pedestrian in Lower Manhattan on July 1, 2011.
NEW YORK — An NYPD auxiliary van crashed into a building and killed a pedestrian Friday morning, a source told PIX11 News.
The accident occured on Elizabeth Street near Canal around 11 a.m.
According to a source, the driver of the van was an 80-year-old auxiliary cop but his name is unknown at this time.
Police say the victim, 55 year-old Kok Hoe Tee, was rushed to New York Downtown Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation but police say criminal charges aren't expected.
The NYPD Auxiliary Police are unpaid, unarmed reserve officers who work as part of a subdivision for the NYPD. The auxiliary police force assist police officers with patrols, direct traffic, and crowd control during vehicular accidents, fires, demonstrations, and any other major events. There are over 4,500 auxiliar police officers in the NYPD.
CCTV footage shows the unidentified woman and Hatzolah member Jo Berkovits save Arafat Hassan, who was stranded inside a burning home
London - A woman risked her life to enter a blazing building and rescue a two-year-old boy.
CCTV footage shows the unidentified woman rushing into a blazing house in Tottenham to save Arafat Hassan, who was stranded inside.
The toddler was fighting for his life today in intensive care after suffering severe burns when the blaze swept through his family’s terrace home in Antill Road yesterday afternoon.
The courageous woman was helped in the rescue by a paramedic and a chef from a nearby restaurant, who also ran into the blazing building.
Neighbours said she was driving past the house when she heard Arafat’s pregnant mother screaming for help. The boy’s father, Sadir Hassan, was apparently struggling to get inside, having been beaten back by the flames while helping other people to get out of the house.
According to eyewitnesses, the woman, wearing blue jeans and a green vest top, leapt from her car and ran inside with little thought for her own safety.
She appeared moments later carrying the child and took him to a restaurant across the street. Josh Berkovits, a paramedic, also helped to get Arafat to safety and gave emergency medical treatment.
Mr Berkovits, 35, who works with Hatzola, a local ambulance service run by the Jewish community, cut off the boy’s clothes, applied burns gel to his wounds and wrapped him in cling film to stop infection.
“The boy had burns to about 80 per cent of his body,” said Mr Berkovits. “When we got him to the restaurant he stopped screaming. He had breathed in a lot of smoke so was very quiet.”
The chef, Javier Fajardo-Toledo, 40, from Ecuador, said: “When the lady got the baby into the restaurant I tried to help but he was burnt very badly. The lady was really brave, she didn’t think twice.”
Four fire engines and 20 firefighters were called to the blaze, which destroyed the two-storey house. Today, the Hassan family, believed to be from Somalia, said the mystery woman was “amazing” but were too shocked to comment further.
Neighbour Matthew Miller said: “The little boy was so badly burned, all over his face and arms, but he was totally quiet.
“What all three people did was amazingly brave, they are heroes. Most people just wouldn’t.
Switzerland - A poster showing a Jewish figure shot by an arrow is spurring outrage in Geneva.
The ad for a Swiss national day party planned for Aug. 1 by the extremist group GNC shows a doll wearing a skullcap and an Israeli flag with an arrow in its forehead, evoking the legend of William Tell, with the slogan, “Save Switzerland: Shoot Straight!” in French.
“This is a call for the murder of Jews,” Jonah Gurfinkel said.
A GNC member said the ad was directed against the Israeli government, not Jews.
A smiling Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed with no bail Friday in a stunning reversal of fortune as prosecutors declined to drop attempted rape charges against the French bigwig.
The accused sexual predator, due back in court July 18, walked out of court with his biggest legal victory since his May 14 arrest for assaulting a midtown Manhattan hotel maid.
Strauss-Kahn held hands with his wife, who stood by him from the start, and flashed a smile while leaving the courtroom. He declined to address a media horde at the Manhattan courthouse.
"This is a giant step," said defense attorney Benjamin Brafman after his client's triumph. "The next step will lead to a complete dismissal of the charges."
With sources saying the case was collapsing amid a series of lies by the accuser, prosecutors acknowledged their witness had "substantial credibility issues."
But prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the case against the defendant would continue.
"The fact of a sexual encounter was and is corroborated by forensic evidence," she said.
The attorney for the Midtown hotel maid whose allegations were at the center of the high-profile case insisted his client was telling the truth.
"It is obvious that this woman made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she is not a rape victim," said lawyer Ken Thompson.
"From day one, she has described a violent sexual assault that Dominique Strauss-Kahn committed against her," Thompson said. "She has described that sexual assault many times, to prosecutors and to me, and she has never once changed a single thing about that encounter."
He added that the woman planned to go public with her identity in the near future.
The 62-year-old former head of the International Monetary Fund will be freed from his house arrest in a $50-000-a-month lower Manhattan townhouse.
His $1 million cash bail and $5 million bond will be returned under a deal with prosecutors, and he is permitted to travel anywhere in the U.S under the agreement, said noted attorney Brafman.
Prosecutors held onto his passport, keeping Strauss-Kahn from returning to his homeland. The defendant and his wife share a home in Washington, D.C.
Strauss-Kahn, accompanied by his television newswoman wife Anne Sinclair, departed for court in a black Lexus SUV about 40 minutes before his scheduled hearing.
Asked if he felt vindicated, the accused sexual predator turned to face reporters but said nothing. Strauss-Kahn's wealthy wife had posted the huge payout to spring him from Rikers Island.
Strauss-Kahn wore a calm, almost serene look as he headed inside the courthouse with Sinclair and a security guard. He wore a black suit with a light blue tie.
Brafman was smiling too as he joined his white-haired client for the hearing.
The prosecution of Strauss-Kahn is in jeopardy of falling apart because the hotel maid who accused him was caught in a web of lies, sources said.
The Bronx chambermaid's credibility crumbled as investigators linked her to a network of crooks and found that she had multiple bank accounts stuffed with a total of almost $100,000 in dirty cash, sources said Thursday night.
Prosecutors now believe there was little truth in anything the native of Guinea native told them since the NYPD yanked the one-time contender for the French presidency off a plane at Kennedy Airport on May 14, the sources said.
A horde of media joined the simply curious outside the courthouse where Strauss-Kahn was due at 11:30 a.m.
"I hope he will not be guilty for the image of France," said French tourist Jean Mark Beauchet, 62. "It changed the political scenario in France. He would have won the election."
Hells Kitchen resident Willa Streeter said she was there to support Strauss-Kahn.
"I feel bad how they handled this case," she said. "They took him to Rikers Island with all those murderers."
A phalanx of photographers lined either side of the courthouse entrance awaiting Strauss-Kahn, who had reason for optimism: There even appears to be a smoking gun exposing his accuser.
Less than a day after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, his accuser had a telephone conversation with an incarcerated "high-end, profitable drug dealer," said one source with knowledge of the imperiled case.
During the jailhouse chat, the maid discussed how she could cash in by accusing the political and financial titan. The damning talk was caught on tape.
"The DA's office has concluded she materially misled the grand jury," said a source close to the case. "The case has gone to hell. It's a wreck."
Thompson dismissed the reports of her involvement with drug dealers as "a lie."
A perjury charge against the accuser is a possibility - but what actually happened in the hotel room may forever remain a he-said-she-said, the sources said.
"The end is going to be soon - whether it's this week or next week, the case is not sustainable," the source said.
Prosecutors still believe Strauss-Kahn and the accuser had a sexual encounter - possibly even one of a forcible nature, a police source said. But the maid's shattered credibility makes even a misdemeanor charge against him seem like a tough sell.
The stunning revelation, first reported Thursday by the New York Times, is a major blow to the NYPD and first-term Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. DA's office.
It will also inevitably fuel pre-existing speculation that Strauss-Kahn was set up by political enemies - claims prosecutors have previously said are without merit.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the department's top spokesman, declined comment. A spokesman for the DA's office also refused comment.
The well-placed source said the NYPD rushed to judgment after it learned Strauss-Kahn was headed to the airport to catch a Paris-bound flight after allegedly fondling the maid at his $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel near Times Square. France does not have an extradition policy with the United States.
"They jumped the gun here because he was getting on a plane," the source said. "That is the explanation."
From the moment the criminal charges made headlines, Strauss-Kahn's legal team beat the bushes, sources said. They learned that she told investigators that her application for asylum included a previous rape - but the papers held no such claim, another cop source said.
The defense team also learned she was paying hundreds of bucks a month for several phone bills, but told authorities she had only one phone, that source said.
In late May, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers sent a letter to prosecutors saying they had evidence that shot holes in the case. Prosecutors fired back telling them to turn over the goods, the sources said.
Prosecutors have scoffed at the notion Strauss-Kahn's defense team spoon-fed them info about the maid's shady background, sources said.
Defense lawyers "knew by the second or third day she was not who she claimed to be," one source said.
The maid had a jailhouse chat with a man who had been busted with more than 400 pounds of marijuana, the sources said. He and a handful of others had made several cash deposits - adding up to about $100,000 - into "sophisticated bank accounts" set up for the maid.
The maid has told authorities she knew little about the big-money deposits, the sources said.
"She's complicit in those activities," the source said. "She's a rainmaker. She's in with a crew that makes illegal money."
SUV at Amsterdam Ave. and 98th St. after hitting two women
An elderly Manhattan woman who doted on her daughter was killed Thursday night as they walked together and were hit by an SUV whose driver was backing into a parking spot, police said.
"Look out! Look out!" a man screamed as the maroon Ford Explorer zipped in reverse along an upper West Side street and headed straight for Yolanda Casal, 78, and her daughter.
But the driver, who police said was unlicensed, kept right on going.
Casal, originally from Cuba, got the worst of the jarring impact.
She was hurtled through the air and suffered massive head trauma, witnesses and a family friend said.
"The lady just flew," said David Gomez, 47, who was sitting outside a nearby laundermat.
His friend was the one who had yelled the unheeded warning.
Casal's daughter, Anais Emmanuel, who suffered broken ribs, could only console her dying mother as she lay motionless on the street, encircled by onlookers.
Witnesses said Casal was bleeding heavily over several parts of her body, particularly her head and face.
"You couldn't see her face through it all," said Remir Baly, 30, one of many bystanders who observed the aftermath of the curbside horror on Amsterdam Ave. shortly after 5 p.m.
Casal and her daughter were rushed by ambulance to St. Luke's Hospital, where the ever-loving mother died a short time later, said police and her son-in-law's friend.
The friend, Alan Mitchell, said Casal, who lived a block from the accident scene, loved caring for her daughter and her husband.
"She loved for them to spend the weekend with her. She loved cooking for them. She even doing their laundry," he said.
Emmanuel's husband, Irvin Emmanuel, wept as he embraced loved ones at the hospital, where his wife was recuperating.
The 38-year-old man who was driving the Ford was later placed under arrest and was expected to be charged with driving with a suspended license.
What started as a regular summer Thursday night at the Sloatsburg Rest Area, has turned into chaos, with hundreds of people trying to get into the Mincha Area at once. This has caused serious traffic delays on the NYS Thruway, with the NYSP stating the traffic is backed up for one mile. The Thruway Authority and NYSP have closed the area for the night.
Community activists are on the scene, and working with officials, to ensure that the issues which plagued the area tonight, will not be repeated.
Apparrantly, due to the overflowing crowds, people parked their vehicles on the enterence ramp to the area, and not in the designated area, causing the massive traffic backup.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived at Manhattan Criminal Court for his arraignment in New York on June 6
New York - Prosecutors will notify the court Friday of troubling believability issues with the woman once called extremely credible in her sexual assault allegations against former International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, an official familiar with the case told CNN.
The issues were disclosed Thursday by prosecutors in a meeting with Strauss-Kahn's defense, the official said. The credibility problems are expected to be explained in a letter expected to be filed Friday by prosecutors with the court, the official said.
The revelation is particularly stunning given prior statements by police and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who spoke forcefully about the accuser's credibility in the days after Strauss-Kahn was arrested.
The matter is so serious that it ultimately could mean the collapse of the felony case against Strauss-Kahn, the official said.
However, according to another official familiar with the case, it is unlikely the felony charges against Strauss-Kahn will be scuttled immediately following Friday's hearing.
"There are a lot of different ways this could go," the official told CNN.
Attorneys for the hotel maid did not respond to repeated attempts by CNN for comment.
While it is unclear what the immediate ramifications are for the prosecution, defense attorneys are expected to ask for a reduction in Strauss-Kahn's strict bail terms during Friday's hearing.
"Prosecutors will not object and, in fact, will ask for a bail reduction," the official said.
Prosecutors told Strauss-Kahn's team that the hotel maid "had not been truthful in her application for asylum from her home country of Guinea, or about details about a prior sexual assault," the official said.
"There was more concern about what she told investigators in a very believable way. "
The problem was, according to the official, the prior assault didn't happen that way.
NYPD Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne told CNN he had "no comment" on the alleged credibility issue with the witness.
The New York Times, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, reported Thursday on its web site that the case against Strauss-Kahn was on the "verge of collapse as investigators have uncovered major holes in the credibility of the housekeeper."
Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty June 6 to seven charges involving a May 14 incident in which a housekeeping employee at New York's Sofitel hotel accused him of sexual assault.
Strauss-Kahn, who was considered a front-runner in France's presidential race before his arrest, faces charges that include criminal sexual acts and sexual abuse.
Throughout, Strauss-Kahn has proclaimed his innocence. His defense team in June challenged the woman's credibility, threatening to release information that would "undermine the quality of this prosecution and also gravely undermine the credibility of the complainant in this case."
There are "serious issues regarding the credibility" of a hotel maid, an official close to the defense told CNN earlier Thursday.
Strauss-Kahn's defense team will ask for bail modifications at a court hearing slated for Friday morning, the official close to the defense team said.
In previous court appearances, the judge said that if Strauss-Kahn wanted to leave the city, he would require the court's permission. Strauss-Kahn was previously required to turn over his French passport and United Nations travel credentials to authorities.
Strauss-Kahn was released from jail on $6 million bail but is under house arrest in a luxury townhouse in New York's Tribeca neighborhood.
He is under court-ordered watch as part of the terms of his bail agreement and must pay for 24-hour armed guards posted at the door, as well as electronic surveillance.
Strauss-Kahn has been paying roughly $250,000 a month on court-ordered security at the townhouse.
It is possible Strauss-Kahn's attorneys could ask Friday that he be released on his own recognizance.
Prosecutors may object to any request that allows for the return of Strauss-Kahn's passport to travel outside the United States, said one of the officials familiar with the case.
WHITE PLAINS — Former East Ramapo schools chief and Monsey fire commissioner Nathan Rothschild this morning pleaded guilty to engaging in a mail fraud scheme.
He could face up to 20 years in prison for the felony charge.
But U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains indicated that Rothschild could serve the term of between 27 to 33 months in prison.
Speaking in court, Rothschild admitted that he had attempted to wipe out his personal debt of $125,000 by selling public property while serving as a Monsey fire commissioner. The scheme appears not have gone far before Rothschild was caught.
"You knew what you were doing was illegal?" Karas asked.
"Yes," Rothschild said.
Rothschild, 54, is currently free on $100,000 bail.
