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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2019 14 pages • Vol.Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint 42, No. 33 • August 16–22, 2019
NO CHARGES IN CYCLIST SLAY
Teen driver who killed cyclist in Midwood after running red light released without charges: NYPD
Bake off against bus cuts
Locals rally, make pastries in opposition to changes for B54
Prison sentence for NBA vet
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Governor Andrew Cuomo will invest some $5.6 million to revamp two intersections at
the border of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene, including this junction of Navy and
Tillary streets, as part of a $10 million investment in America’s Downtown.
State to fund connections in BQE-split nabe
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By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Police released the
teen driver who they
claim killed a cyclist
in Midwood on Sunday
without charging
him, according to authorities.
Officers from the
66th Precinct took the
18-year-old man into
custody on Aug. 11 after
investigators determined
14 CYCLISTS KILLED
IN BROOKLYN IN 2019
19 IN CITY OVERALL
he sped through a red light and
T-boned another car at the intersection
of Coney Island Avenue and Avenue L at
12:30 p.m., causing the other vehicle to
slam into 52-year-old Park Slope cyclist
Jose Alzorriz, killing him, cops said.
Video footage posted online clearly
shows the operator of a white Dodge Charger
blowing past the red light and plowing
into a blue Honda SUV at speeds that
appear in excess of the blanket 25 miles
per hour speed limit Mayor Bill de Blasio
set for most city roadways in 2014.
Police have not issued any summonses
related to the collision, according to
NYPD spokeswoman
Det. Denise Moroney,
who would not say when
the driver was released,
or comment on the status
of the investigation,
except to say it remains
ongoing.
The license plate
number on the teen’s
Dodge Charger is associated
with two prior
speeding tickets, in addition
to four violations
for driving with missing plates, and several
parking tickets, all of which were
issued in 2019, according to Twitter bot
How’s My Driving.
Detectives have contacted District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez’s office and briefed
his staff on the investigation, according
to a police spokesman, who would not
comment on the record regarding the
potential for future charges.
If prosecutors were to seek a felony
indictment against the teen driver, they
would likely pursue either criminally negligent
homicide, or the stiffer charge of
second-degree manslaughter, according
Police released the 18-year-old driver who smashed his white Dodge Charger into another car, which then
fatally struck 52-year-old cyclist Jose Alzorriz at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Avenue L in
Midwood on Aug. 11.
to a law enforcement source.
Gonzalez charged Dorothy Bruns —
the Staten Island motorist who struck
and killed two children after running a
red light in Park Slope last year — with
second-degree manslaughter after investigators
discovered that a doctor had
warned her not to drive for health reasons.
Bruns’ case was set to go to trial
this year, but the she ultimately chose
to end her own life in November , when
she was found dead beside a bottle of
pills and a suicide note.
Police did not immediately charge
Bruns following the March 2018 collision,
and it wasn’t until May 2018 that
she was arrested following a lengthy investigation.
On Monday night, Mayor Bill de Blasio
— who said he saw a video of the incident
and called it “horrible” — demanded the
driver be charged, saying that the reckless
behavior demonstrated in the footage
warranted immediate action.
“He just blows right through a red light
and you know, kills someone. Of course,
there should be numerous charges right
now,” de Blasio told Errol Louis on Inside
City Hall. “I’m not a lawyer but I’d
say it should be a serious, serious charge
with many years in prison.”
Hizzoner went on to request state legislators
harden the penalties for motorists
who kill people from behind the
wheel of a car.
“I think it is time to reassess our
whole relationship with the automobile
and say if you kill someone and
you did something wrong as part of that,
there should be a very, very serious penalty,”
he said.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Gov. Andrew Cuomo will invest
$5.6 million to create new pedestrian
crossings to connect Downtown
areas separated by the Brooklyn
Queens Expressway.
The elevated, cross-borough
highway separates Downtown
Brooklyn from Dumbo and residents
of Fort Greene’s massive
Ingersoll Houses from the Navy
Yard and Commodore Barry Park,
creating dicey street crossings and
casting a literal shadow over much
of the neighborhood.
The state cash infusion will
help fund a $7.7 million project
to open up the area by creating
new, safer crossings at the busy
intersections of Tillary and Navy
streets and at Park Avenue and
St. Edwards Streets, according to
Cuomo’s number two.
“With funding from the Downtown
Revitalization Initiative,
significant projects to improve
walkability and safety will better
connect Downtown Brooklyn
and the Navy Yard to surrounding
neighborhoods,” said Lt. Gov.
Kathy Hochul, who announced the
investment Wednesday.
The $5.6 million in state funding
is part of Cuomo’s $10 million
Downtown Revitalization Initiative
to help fund various city projects
around the Downtown area,
which include:
• $1.96 million in funding for
a $15 million suite of upgrades
for Commodore Barry Park, including
new place spaces, renovated
basketball and handball
courts, and removing fencing to
promote easy access.
• $1.25 million of funding for
an $8.37 million project to transform
Walt Whitman Library into
a so-called “modern community
hub,” featuring renovated and
expanded programming spaces
to support job training and other
events.
• $1.5 million for a $2 million
project to install new lights
around the perimeter of the Farragut
housing complex on Navy,
York, and Sands streets.
• $853,700 for a $5.99 million
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office
Bridging the divide
That money will also go
towards improving pedestrian
safety on St. Edwards
Street at Park Avenue.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
A Metropolitan Transportation
Authority scheme to cut service to
the B54 bus route drove dozens of
residents and business owners to
rally Thursday morning on Myrtle
Avenue in Clinton Hill, where
one straphanger said he was so upset
— he made cookies!
“I’ve never been in a situation
where someone takes away bus
service from a thriving neighborhood.
With that said, I made
some cookies. Let the sweetness
make up for the bitterness,” said
Theo Peck, owner of Peck’s gourmet
food market on Myrtle Avenue,
who brought cookies featuring
red and blue frosting, which
read “Save the B54,” to the Aug.
8 demonstration.
Transit officials announced
in July they would reduce the
amount of buses running along
the B54’s Myrtle Avenue route between
Bushwick and Downtown
Brooklyn this fall in response to
low ridership numbers, forcing
commuters to wait an additional
one to three minutes during the
morning peak, midday, and evening
hours. The route will keep
the same schedule as current during
the evening peak times, according
to documents released
last month.
The MTA has pitched the service
cuts as a modest inconve-
Photo by Kevin Duggan
Protesters rallied against the Metropolitan Transportation Auhtority’s planned cuts to the
B54 bus service on Myrtle Avenue near Washington Avenue on Aug. 8.
nience that will result in substantial
savings and allow the agency to
enhance service elsewhere, but the
plan has drawn fierce opposition
from community members, business
owners, and local elected officials,
who claim transit officials
have underestimated the value of
local transit to commuters.
“I think it’s outrageous and unacceptable,”
said Assemblyman
Joseph Lentol (D–Clinton Hill) at
the protest organized by the local
business booster the Myrtle Avenue
Partnership at the corner of
Washington Avenue. “Brooklyn is
the greatest borough in the world
and we need more transportation
services, not less.”
Peck said he relies on the bus
both personally and professionally,
saying his wife, son, staff,
and patrons all use the B54, and
that his business will suffer as a
result of the cuts.
“Basically my entire back-ofthe
house staff takes the B54.
Whether it’s from one place or
another, the B54 gets them here,
and it gets them here on time,” he
said. “This is vital. This is how
people earn a living.”
The demonstration was represented
by small business owners,
the elderly and disabled, workers
and area residents, all of whom
shared a reliance on the Myrtle Avenue
bus route, and one local woman
demanded the MTA find some other
way to pinch pennies.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Onetime American professional
basketball player Sebastian Telfair
was sentenced to three-and-a-half
years in prison for illegal weapons
possession, Brooklyn’s top prosecutor
announced Monday.
The nine-year NBA veteran
was slapped with felony charges
for carrying a loaded .45-caliber
handgun, which police discovered
during a traffic stop in June 2017,
according to District Attorney Eric
Gonzalez.
Cops stopped Telfair and another
man after spotting the athlete pull
an illegal U turn on Atlantic Avenue
near Classon Avenue and then drive
towards Prospect Heights with his
headlights off at 2:50 a.m. on June
11, according to Gonzalez.
The officers detected an odor of
weed, and after a brief search discovered
a lit joint and the fully loaded
.45-caliber pistol in the center console
of his car, as well as a small arsenal
that included a submachine
gun, two other pistols, and a bulletproof
vest stashed in his trunk,
according to prosecutors.
Telfair had Florida gun permits
for all of his weapons, and prosecutors
only charged him for the pistol
that was within arm’s reach at the
time of his arrest, leading a jury to
find him guilty of felony second-degree
criminal possession of a weapon
following his trial in April.
Telfair was previously cuffed
for carrying a loaded handgun in
Yonkers back in 2007.
Sebastian Telfair was found
with a .45-calber gun in his
car on Atlantic Avenue.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
See B54 on page 12
project to renovate the Cumberland
Street entrance to the Brooklyn
Navy Yard.
• $600,000 to fully fund an arts
project featuring local artists.
• $200,000 to create a digital
tech center at the Ingersoll
Community Center, featuring
new computer equipment and
furniture to support new jobs
and arts programs.
The leader of a Downtown
business group that applied for
the $10 million grant applauded
the governor’s investment, which
they hope will connect Kings
County’s business district with
the Navy Yard’s expanding tech
hub.
“Walkability and green space
are essential to the continued
growth of the area and these
planned improvements will provide
long-overdue connections
from Downtown Brooklyn to
the Brooklyn Navy Yard,” said
Regina Myer, the president of
the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership.
The business group hopes to
use the money to build momentum
on a larger $200 million revitalization
scheme dubbed the
“Brooklyn Strand” plan , which
Mayor Bill de Blasio first announced
in 2014, and would construct
a slate of parks and public
spaces to make the Downtown
area a more walkable place.
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