Bronx News Roundup, Nov. 24

A NYPD outdoor firing range in City Island will move to a new 40-acre indoor police academy in Queens. Although City Island residents are celebrating the removal of the firing range, they are still upset that the range will still be used for bomb disposal, which creates a significant amount of unpleasant noise.

The Bronx fire department suspects that Sunday's four-alarm fire in Claremont was started by a crack pipe. Multiple crack pipes were found in a room rented by former New York Knicks player Dean Meminger. However, it is not official that the crack pipes belonged to Meminger, who is in critical condition at the burn unit in Jacobi Hospital.

A New York judge plans to dismiss the case of a Bronx man, William McCaffrey, after he spent four years in prison as an innocent man accused of raping a woman. The woman recently confessed that she lied about the rape. McCaffrey was previously released on bail in September of this year.

Lawyers representing the four of the five men charged with the shooting incidents that included the shooting of 15 year-old Vada Vasquez asked for protective custody for their clients in jail.

The Bronx man, Vincent Martinez, who pulled the emergency brake on the D subway on Saturday night after witnessing a murder tells his story to the Daily News. Although some sources criticized Martinez's decision to pull the brake, which stopped the subway, Mayor Bloomberg defended his choice.

The New York Times profiled a 99 year-old lifelong Bronx resident, Sarah Gellert, who lives alone in her apartment. The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund supports The Jewish Association for Services of the Aged, which helped Gellert obtain a much-needed hearing aid.