May 17, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAGE 7
Community org
offers cash to
hourly workers
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The Brooklyn Heights Association
has launched a relief fund
to give cash grants to the area’s
struggling hourly workers who
have suffered income loss due to
the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The civic group’s initiative,
called “Brooklyn Heights Together,”
will provide one-time
$250 cash grants to workers formerly
employed in the brownstone
neighborhood to help ensure they
can still afford their essentials.
The cash stipends will go to
people who worked in deliveries,
restaurant kitchens, salons, and
store clerks, among others — many
of whom are immigrant or refugee
workers that may be unable to access
governmental assistance, but
are a vital part of the community
nonetheless, said Birnback.
“We tried to fi nd out where
there was a need that wasn’t being
met through other efforts,” she
said.
The generous program will be
funded by the Brooklyn Heights
Association, which received over
$10,000 in donations from philanthropic
neighbors within the fi rst
three hours of announcing their
effort on May 7, according to the
civic guru.
“It’s really amazing, I’m really
excited and grateful,” she said.
‘I THOUGHT I
WAS GOING
TO DIE’
Man speaks out about violent
social distancing arrest
East Flatbush rapper Nick Blixky shot to death
BY TODD MAISEL
Up-and-coming rapper Nick
Blixky was shot to death on May 10
in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, police
said. He was 21.
Cops from the 71st Precinct
found the young rapper, whose real
name is Nickalus Thompson, unconscious
and unresponsive with
multiple gunshot wounds to the
chest and buttocks on Winthrop
Street by Rogers Avenue at about
9:30 pm, authorities said.
First responders rushed
Thompson to Kings County Hospital,
where he was pronounced dead
on arrival, offi cials said.
Investigators found seven spent
shell casings on the ground where
Thompson was killed. The crime
scene was still marked off on Monday
morning, and police were
searching nearby security camera
footage to try to fi nd the killer.
Thompson, a Jamaican-American
rapper from East Flatbush,
was about to debut a catalog of new
music entitled, “Different Timin,”
to be released on June 3.
Thompson has released singles
called “Drive the Boat,” and
“Change Gears,” in which he raps
about life on the city streets.
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
On the warm evening of April
29, Adegoke Atunbi parked his
car on an East New York street
corner as he went into a nearby
bodega to buy a drink. That’s
when he noticed a crowd beginning
to form around a group of
police offi cers who were arresting
a young man near Sutter Avenue
and Hemlock Street.
“I thought, ‘Let me just pull out
my camera and watch what’s going
on,’” said 31-year-old Atunbi.
As swarms of other onlookers
gathered and several more
offi cers arrived on the scene, the
mood became decidedly more
restless for a tense few moments
— and then, after yelling for
the crowds to back off, a plainclothed
In an unrelated case, a 41-yearold
man was found stabbed to
death in a Brighton Beach home
on May 10.
The victim, whom police had
not identifi ed by Monday morning,
was found dead inside a building
on Brighton Third Street by police
from the 60th Precinct. Emergency
responders pronounced him dead
at the scene.
offi cer punched one of the
bystanders in the face.
Atunbi, having failed to document
the moments immediately
preceding that violent escalation,
tried to shift his camera to catch
the chaotic scene unfolding next
to him, but other offi cers began to
push him back — seemingly becoming
agitated with him capturing
the events on video.
“I can video and document as
a citizen, I’m not impeding the arrest,”
said Atunbi.
Moments later, a cop in a blue
long sleeve shirt forcefully shoved
Atunbi, jerking his camera lens off
the action — before, Atunbi claims,
the cop hit him in the face, shoved
him to the ground, and brought
Continued on page 2
Demonstrators gathered outside One Police Plaza to protest unequal enforcement
of social distancing. Photo by Jon Farina
The crime scene. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
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