Queens’ top crime stories of 2021
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
QNS is looking back at our top
stories throughout 2021, as we look
forward to 2022.
In terms of crimes, 2021 saw cases
of gun violence, hate crimes against
Asian Americans, sexual assault,
drug trafficking, a chaotic Rikers Island
and more.
Here are some of the top crime
stories of 2021 in Queens.
Triple shooting at Kew Gardens hotel
marks fi rst homicide of 2021
One person was killed and two others
were injured in a shooting at the
Umbrella Hotel in Kew Gardens early
Jan. 1 morning, marking the first homicide
of the new year, according to
authorities.
A police spokesperson said the
shooting victims were together at the
hotel and engaged in a dispute with a
group of at least four people before the
shooting.
Friends and family, along with former
teachers and mentors joined together
on Jan. 2, to mourn 20-year-old
Robert Williams of Rosedale, who was
a star quarterback for the Rosedale
Jets.
In October, a Bronx 19-year-old was
accused of carrying out the shooting
and murder. He faces life in prison if
convicted.
The incident caused renewed calls
from community members and elected
officials for the city to close the Umbrella
Hotel, which Queens Borough
President Donovan Richards called
a “public nuisance that has no place
in Kew Gardens or anywhere in our
borough or city.”
The city eventually ordered the closure
of the Umbrella Hotel.
Woodside church deacon arrested for
attempting to have sex with child: DA
Rogelio Vega, a deacon at a Woodside
church was cuffed for trying to
meet up with someone he believed
to be a teenage boy for sex, Queens
District Attorney Melinda Katz
announced in January.
The 50-year-old man from Maspeth
was charged with attempted use of
a child in a sexual performance, attempted
criminal sexual act, attempted
disseminating indecent material to
a minor and attempted endangering
the welfare of a child on Wednesday,
Jan. 20.
Vega, who works as a deacon at
Saint Sebastian Roman Catholic
Church in Woodside, began communicating
with an undercover detective,
who Vega believed to be a 14-year-old
boy, on the dating app Grindr, according
to the charges. He allegedly sent
The scene where one person was killed and two others were injured during a shooting in front of the Umbrella Hotel in Kew
Gardens on Jan. 1, 2021. Photo by Mari Estrella
photos of his genitals and requested
to meet up for sex, only to be arrested
by the undercover detective earlier in
January.
Vega faced up to seven years in
prison.
Police task force busts suspected
Ridgewood heroin mill home to $12
million worth of drugs
Law enforcement officials busted
a major heroin mill in Ridgewood
in February, the office of New York
City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor
announced.
The Ridgewood home was found
to have around 39 kilograms of suspected
heroin, 1,000 pills of fentanyl
and $200,000 in cash inside when a law
enforcement team comprised of DEA
special agents, NYPD detectives and
New York State Police investigators
made their way inside on Monday, Feb.
8. The drugs inside the apartment are
believed to be worth around $12 million,
according to prosecutors.
Four Queens residents were arrested
in connection with the stash
house on Forest Avenue, including
Luis Martinez, who law enforcement
officials believe to be the leader of the
operation.
Group of teens attacks 13-year-old
Asian American boy in suspected hate
crime in Flushing
A 13-year-old Asian American boy
was the victim of a hate crime, after
he was attacked by a group of teens on
a Flushing basketball court in March.
The 13-year-old was playing at
Bowne Playground when he got into
an argument with three other teenage
boys, according to the NYPD. After
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.10 COM | DEC. 31, 2021 - JAN. 6, 2022
shoving the 13-year-old to the ground,
the three other boys took turns throwing
a basketball at the young man’s
head, cops said.
One of the attackers said, “Stupid
f––g Chinese. Go back to your country,”
according to the authorities. The
three teens then ran off.
The incident was just one in an
alarming trend of anti-Asian hate
crimes in Queens, the city and
throughout the country amid the COVID
19 pandemic.
Queens man indicted on hate crime
charge for allegedly attacking Asian
woman at Flushing bakery
A Queens man was indicted by a
Queens County grand jury on a hate
crime and other charges on May 10, for
allegedly attacking an Asian woman
outside of a Flushing bakery, according
to Queens District Attorney Melinda
Katz.
On Feb. 16, Patrick Mateo, 47, and
a 52-year-old Chinese woman were in
line at a bakery on Roosevelt Avenue
when he began to argue with the woman,
according to the charges. Then,
without provocation, Mateo cursed at
the 52-year-old woman and pushed her
face.M
ateo then allegedly entered the
bakery, grabbed a cardboard box, ran
back outside and threw the box at the
woman before forcefully shoving her
backward onto the ground and into a
metal newsstand box on the sidewalk,
according to the charges.
The attack left a long gash across the
woman’s forehead that required 10 stitches
to close, according to authorities.
Patrick Mateo, 47, awaited arraignment
in Queens Supreme Court on an
indictment charging him with aggravated
harassment in the second degree,
assault in the third degree and harassment
in the second degree. Mateo faced
up to one year in jail, if convicted.
Feds indict alleged MS-13 member
in brutal 2018 murder of Queens
teenager in Flushing park
An alleged MS-13 associate from
Elmhurst was indicted for murder in
the notorious murder of a 17-year-old in
Flushing’s Kissena Park, according to
the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern
District of New York.
A superseding indictment was returned
on March 25, in Brooklyn federal
court charging Oscar Flores-Mejia, 21,
with murder and conspiracy to commit
murder in connection with the 2018 killing
of Queens teenager Andy Peralta.
According to court filings, Peralta
was lured into Kissena Park on the evening
of April 23, 2018, where he was ambushed
in a wooded area by Flores-Mejia
and two others. Peralta was believed
to be a member of the 18th Street gang.
The victim had a tattoo of a crown on
his chest which the defendant mistakenly
believed to be a symbol of a rival
gang. Peralta was repeatedly slashed,
stabbed, beaten and strangled.
The charges were the latest in a series
of federal prosecutions by the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District
of New York targeting members of
MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha,
and its leadership in El Salvador
and Honduras. The gang has thousands
of members across the U.S. comprised
mainly of immigrants from Central
America.
YEAR IN REVIEW