Bronx Crime Watch: Murder in Kingsbridge

A 40-year-old man died last night in Kingsbridge after sustaining multiple gun shot wounds. Just before 10 p.m., police from the 50th Precinct found Bryan Nunez unconscious and unresponsive at 2816 Heath Ave., about a half block north of Kingsbridge Road, with bullet wounds to his head and torso. Emergency responders pronounced Nunez dead at the scene. No arrests yet, police say.

Police said Nunez was a resident of Washington Heights.

Free Flu Shot Vouchers for District 14 Residents

For those of you who want to avoid the flu this winter season (and don't we all?), Councilman Fernando Cabrera's office is providing vouchers for free flu shots to 100 residents in his district on a first come, first serve basis. To be eligible, you must be over 18 years of age, uninsured, and live in the 14th City Council District--i.e. Fordham, Kingsbridge, and Morris Heights. Here's a map of the district courtesy of Gotham Gazette.

Here's some information from the press release: "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu is a contagious respiratory illness that can result in death. People who are at high risk to develop flu conditions include; young children, older adults, and people with certain health conditions such as asthma. The best way to avoid catching the flu is to get vaccinated each year."

For more information, contact Community Liaison Anthony Springer at Cabrera's office: (347) 590-2878

Bronx News Roundup, May 20

Police are asking for help in locating the man who robbed a woman's car in Mott Haven--stealing a container with the remains of her recently cremated mother.

Police are also looking for 14-year-old Moona Choudhary, of 2158 Blackrock Ave., who has been missing since May 17. See this link for a photo.

The four Bronx men who were arrested in February for pelting off-duty cops with snowballs have some new evidence--video surveillance of the incident, where it looks like one of the officers pulls his gun. Watch the video here. The case against the four, who were charged with criminal possession of a weapon, was dropped earlier this month.

State Senator Jeff Klein, who heads the government efficiency task force, lauded Governor Paterson's recent decision to halt overtime pay to state agencies.

There's a new wave of young, Obama-inspired political hopefuls, according to the Daily News--including Pedro Espada challenger Gustavo Rivera.

Ex-Senator Efrain Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty last spring to counts of fraud and conspiracy, asked a federal judge yesterday to grant him a similar sentence as former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month on counts of mail fraud. Prosecutors have asked that Gonzalez get as much as 14 years.

Nine senior centers in the Bronx are on the chopping block as a result of state budget cuts.

A housing court judge issued a warrant for the arrest of a landlord for failing to show up in court and for ignoring orders to fix hundreds of violations at his 1585 East 172nd Street building. 

A group of Riverdale residents stopped the Parks Department from spraying herbicide in Ewen Park.

A look at some of the changes, and non-changes, in Kingsbridge over the years. 

Residents are campaigning to get grocery service FreshDirect to deliver to the Northwest Bronx.

News Roundup, April 21

There's a lot of Bronx news today! The big story on everyone's mind is the scandal surrounding Pedro Espada, whose offices were raided this morning by the FBI, the IRS and the Attorney General's office.

We'll have a separate roundup on the whirlwind of Espada stories in just a few minutes--until then, here's some other, non-Espada related news happening in the borough this morning:

A group of tenants in Kingsbridge are suing over unlivable conditions in their Heath Avenue apartment building, which has over 900 open violations. But instead of suing the real estate company that owns the property (which defaulted on its $35 million mortgage last year), the group is filing against the bank that owns the building's mortgage. This new legal approach would hold the bank responsible for the building's upkeep and repairs.

Speaking of banks--two Bronx men are being charged for holding up and robbing a TD Bank in White Plains last month.

Former Giants running back Tiki Barber is ditching plans to headline a fundraiser run at the Bronx Zoo this weekend due to scandals in his personal life (Barber recently split from his pregnant wife and is supposedly dating a former NBC intern). The race, however, will go on as planned (details here).

The Senate’s Task Force on Government Efficiency, chaired by Bronx pol Jeff Klein, released a report today saying that the state's Department of Transportation wasted $210 million in funds, much of it on outsourced work contracts that could have been cheaper if granted to state employees.

Congressman Jose Serrano is renting office space in the historic BankNote building in Hunts Point (there are also rumors that the nearly century-old building, once a site for the production of foreign currency, could soon be home to the Bronx's first brewery). 

Charges have been dropped against the Bronx man accused of stalking Oprah Winfrey's best friend, Gayle King, at her Connecticut home.

Two Bronx men are being tried in a Brooklyn court this week for allegedly beating a man to death in Bushwick last year because they thought he was gay, according to the NY Post.

A rally is being planned this Thursday at Bartow Community Center in Co-Op City to protest proposed cuts to bus lines by the MTA.

BoogieDowner reports that grocery delivery service FreshDirect is now serving customers in Westchester by driving through the Bronx--though it currently does not deliver to the borough, to the frustration of many Bronxites.

Bronx News Roundup, March 4

Good news: The snow from last week is almost all melted.

Bad news: It may snow tomorrow.

Bronx news:

Some coverage of the MTA hearings at the Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse last night. (We'll have our coverage of this later today.)

A Bronx Community College student has received a $200,000 fellowship to study at Harvard University.

Police say a body pulled from Easchester Bay yesterday afternoon is that of the missing Scarsdale doctor who disappeared on Sunday.

The Riverdale Press talks about how the owners of the new Bronx Brewery are continuing a long borough tradition of brewing beer right here in the Bronx (well, they're stationed out of Yonkers, for now). The Bronx Brewery recently premiered its new brew, Riverd(ale), at the Bronx Ale House.

Here's a little story (from Fox News!?) on some hero cops who escorted a Long Island woman through the blizzard last week to the Montefiore Medical Center where she received a new liver.

Another story from The Riverdale Press talks about how Bronx residents in Kingsbridge and Riverdale are still waiting to feel the positive effects of recent stimulus funds.

Here's an article that has to do with a recent news story in Philadelphia, where a Principal used a laptop webcam to spy on a student and accuse him of using drugs. Skip to the middle of the article to read a particularly weird quote from a Bronx school administrator, who says spying on students through laptops is "always fun." Yeesh.

Borough Prez. Ruben Diaz Jr. recently launched a new website. Check it out here.

Several Bronx men with connections to a marijuana grow house were recently arrested after the property was busted.

Bronx News Roundup, Feb. 12

Lots to get to today. Here's some Bronx stories to get your day started.  

NY Times reporter Sam Dolnick takes a walk around the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and mulls the Armory, stops at the Tibbet Diner, Van Cortlandt Museum, the Bronx Ale House (site of the upcoming BxNN bash on Feb. 25. RSVP now!) and other local spots. Nice little multimedia slide show comes with the story. 

Times Columnist Clyde Haberman goes off on "Bagel Larry" Seabrook and the scandal-plagued state of the City Council, which coincidentally voted to extend their term limits last fall. (I think we need to put this to a vote: should it be "Bagel Larry" or "Cash and Carry Larry"?) More on Bagel-nomics here.

Speaking of Bagel Larry (we'll go with this one for brevity purposes), Seabrook didn't show up to work yesterday, leaving his colleague, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, who remains under a cloud of suspicion, to fend off reporters' questions.In the same story,  The Daily News also says that Assembly members Peter Rivera and Carmen Arroyo (Maria's mom) are also under being investigated.

More on the Bronx's new golf course in Ferry Point.

Bronx Rep Eliot Engel calls Washington, DC's reaction to the recent snow storm "wimpy."

Bronx hip-hop legend Afrika Bambaataa is working with a social networking site that promotes dialogue between people who speak different languages.  

The Department of Homeless Services is changing its policies after a 17-year-old high school student was stuck in a Bronx intake center and missed her Regents graduation exam.

And finally, pessimistic Yankee blogophiles are already conjuring up ways in which the World Series Champion Bronx Bombers' upcoming season could fall apart. (Hint: it may something to with Kate Hudson and/or Cameron Diaz.)

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

Bronx News Roundup, Oct. 7

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com proclaims that the Yankees will win the World Series this year, after a nine-year dry spell.

Omar Freilla, a co-founder of Green Worker Cooperatives in the South Bronx gave a talk on how his organization works to cut down on pollution and promote the creation of environmental and community-based businesses at the University of Texas. Green Worker Cooperatives works with entrepreneurs in the South Bronx community to establish neighborhood businesses that reuse the waste that other industries create.

Adolfo Carrión Jr., who resigned as Bronx borough president in February to join the Obama administration as director of the new White House Office on Urban Affairs, is still keeping an eye on Bronx politics.

The Stella D’oro bakery plant in Kingsbridge will shut down within the next couple of weeks, costing 155 jobs, because the brand is being sold to Lance Snacks.

Police gun down man in N. Fordham

The NYPD has once again killed a man that even police are not claiming possessed a gun.

NY 1 reports that an officer fatally shot 40-year-old Alex Figueroa around 11:45 pm Tuesday night at 196th Street and Bainbridge Avenue. The NYPD is claiming that Figueroa was wielding a baseball bat and refused to drop it.

Figueroa's wife denies this claim. "No baseball bat," Sandra Rodriguez told NY1. "That's a lie."

The New York Times and Daily News have also reported on this story. The News has some particularly powerful quotes from Rodriguez. Two that stand out:

*"I was standing right next to him when they shot him dead. He had his arms at his side. He was doing nothing."

AND

"My husband was a church-going man. We moved to this country two years ago to pursue the American dream and look what happened to us - look what we get."

Here's my question: For the sake of argument, let's even say that Figueroa did have a baseball bat. How does that justify killing him?

Clearly there are conflicting accounts and details are still emerging, but I think Figueroa's neighbor raises important points when he tells NY 1, "No matter what they could have used bodily force to get him, to grab the bat, grab at him... I think that more men to physically hold instead of having to use their gun so quickly, I think that would have been more appropriate."

Life in Prison for Murderer of Beloved Kingsbridge Doctor

Samuel Saunders, the man responsible for killing beloved Kingsbridge-area pediatrician, Leandro Lozada, was sentenced to 25 years to life yesterday by Westchester County judge.

In early January of 2007, Saunders and an accomplice (who has yet to be tried), kidnapped Lozada, tied him up and then forced him to write a $57,000 check before shooting him twice in the head, execution style.

By all accounts, Dr. Lozada was a great father and boss. He was a pillar in the community who believed in providing health care to the under-privileged families in the northwest Bronx. He could have started his clinic, Hispanic Pediatrics, anywhere, but he chose to put it in a storefront on Kingsbridge Road in a low-income Hispanic community. His unofficial policy was to treat anyone, regardless of their ability to pay.

Despite his murderer's sentencing today, nothing will make up for the loss of Dr. Lozada.

Read our original story about the murder here.

And here's a more recent story about the aftermath of his death.

News Roundup for July 3

You heard it here first.
And now it's a done deal. The Bronx Times and Bronx Times Reporter have been gobbled up by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, owner of the New York Post and, as of last year, a bunch of Brooklyn and Queen weeklies.
More on this later.

The Gotham Gazette has a report from Comptroller Bill Thompson on the lack of oversight of Beacon Centers. In the current issue of the Norwood News, we report on a local Beacon Center being taken over by Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC). The center at PS 86 was formerly run by the non-profit Aspira.

In the Daily News:
A team of Daily News reporters learned that the owner of the Grand Concourse building that collapsed Sunday morning, critically injuring two kids, is Gerald Lieblich, the developer who owns the Paradise Theater and the Russian Tea Room. Lieblich faces a hearing on August 17 for allegedly failing to maintain the facade of the 1-story building. He would not comment for the Daily News story.

In "Around the Bronx," Patrice O'Shaughnessy profiles John Mateo, the city employee who died June 24 after being beaten into a coma on Kingsbridge Road and Morris Ave. a month ago. Mateo was a Lehman College graduate and a Latin jazz musician. A suspect has been arrested in the attacks on Mateo and several other men. (Not online yet)

The Bronx section also reports on a Bronx eviction prevention program that's being expanded to Brooklyn and an initiative by Councilman James Vacca to put all Buildings Department permits and applications online to help people monitor what's going on in their neighborhood.

And there's a farewell to CB 7 district manager Rita Kessler, who is leaving the board after 18 years. Here's the Norwood News' story on Kessler's retirement.

The Gotham Gazette has a report from Comptroller Bill Thompson on the lack of oversight of Beacon Centers. In the current issue of the Norwood News, we report on a local Beacon Center being taken over by Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC). The center at PS 86 was formerly run by the non-profit Aspira.

News Roundup for June 28

We learned from a Journal News blog that former Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams is returning to the Bronx August 18, this time wielding a guitar. Williams and Jose Feliciano will perform at "A Night of Unity and Hope," a benefit event at Utopia's Pardise Theater. Jim Layritz and Darryl Strawberry will also take the stage for a performance of "The Boy of Steel," a children's book by Ray Negron.

The police are questioning a suspect in the string of assaults on Kingsbridge Road. Channel 7 News online says the investigators think there may be as many as 10 attackers involved in the attacks.

The Black Star News recaps Bronx Week and interviews Adolfo Carrion about housing gains and development in the Bronx.

And there's lots of coverage of yesterday's blackout in the Bronx and Upper East Side, which disrupted subway service and traffic during the evening rush.