60TH PRECINCT
CONEY ISLAND—BRIGHTON BEACH—
SEAGATE
Money bagged
A street weasel swiped $30,000
out of a man’s pocket on W. 16th
Street on March 17.
The victim told police that the
brigand grabbed him from behind
near Mermaid Avenue at around
11 pm and went through his pocket
— stealing the cash and fl eeing towards
the beach.
Platinum hit
A mechanical-minded thief
snagged the catalytic converter
from a car parked on Bay 48th Street
on March 18.
The victim told police that she
returned to her car at the intersection
of Shore Parkway at around
5 pm and noticed it was making a
loud sound, and a mechanic told her
the platinum car part was missing.
Lootin’ Louie
A highway robber mugged a
woman of her Louis Vuitton bag as
she was walking home on Ocean
Parkway on March 16.
The victim told police that the
bruiser pushed her from behind
near Neptune Avenue at around
midnight before snagging the luxury
purse with her wallet and cash.
61ST PRECINCT
SHEEPSHEAD BAY—HOMECREST—
MANHATTAN BEACH—GRAVESEND
Room raiders
Four prowlers broke into a Knapp
St storage facility on March 17.
An employee told police that the
purloiners stole belongings from
multiple units at the storage space
at the intersection of Avenue Y at
around 2:10 am,.
Stereo scam
A gun-toting crook stole a man’s
music equipment in an Avenue X
building on March 17.
The victim told police that he
was meeting the fraud under the
pretense of selling him the music
equipment at the agreed-upon location
near Bragg Street at around
1:30 pm, when the thief robbed him
of his belongings at gunpoint.
Phone fi ght
A jerk took a man’s iPhone at an
86th Street store on March 16.
The victim told police that he had
gotten into an argument with the
snake inside of the store at the intersection
of W. Eighth Street around
midnight, when the pirate took his
phone and fl ed in a gray vehicle.
— Jessica Parks
COURIER LIFE,8 MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2020
Man charged with murder
following fatal fi re
Prosecutors charged a Bed-Stuy man with murder in connection to a March 16
building fi re. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
76TH PRECINCT
CARROLL GARDENS-COBBLE HILL–RED
HOOK
Back attack
A marauder punched a woman
on Columbia Street on March 21.
The victim told police that the
random attacker punched her in the
back near Mill Street at 12:43 pm.
Wine and crime
A burglar stole two bottles of sangria
from a Smith Street pharmacy.
An employee told police that the
thief nabbed the two $5 bottles of
sangria from the store on the corner
of President Street at 10 pm.
88TH PRECINCT
FORT GREENE–CLINTON HILL
Body-slam!
Two brutes jumped a woman on
Clinton Avenue on March 17.
The victim told police that he
punks threw her to the ground and
threatened her with tasers outside
her apartment door between Dekalb
and Lafayette avenues at 5 pm, before
grabbing her phone and wallet
and hightailing it away, according
to police.
One of the bozos dropped his
phone at the scene, but police are
still looking for both criminals, authorities
said.
Rowdy drunk!
Police arrested a woman they
suspect of attacking a desk clerk at
Brooklyn Hospital on Dekalb Avenue
on March 21.
The victim told police that the
33-year-old was sent to the medical
facility at Ashland Place for being
drunk and that at 2 pm, and she allegedly
threw the secretary’s computer
off her desk and threw a medical
tray at her.
Police arrested the woman and
slapped her with felony assault
charges, according to authorities.
Mystery shooter
A gunman shot a teen and another
woman in their legs on N. Oxford
Wall on March 22.
The 16-year-old boy told police
that he heard the gunshots and then
felt pain in his right leg, but didn’t
see the shooter near Park Avenue at
3 pm.
Cold case
A thief stole three air conditioning
units from a Hoyt Street construction
site sometime between
March 9 and March 24.
The victim told police that the
thief entered the site on the corner
of Douglass Street and made off with
a $2,000 air conditioner condenser,
and two air conditioner handlers.
— Rose Adams
62ND PRECINCT
BENSONHURST—BATH BEACH
Slash and dash
A brute slashed a man with a
sharp object on 21st Avenue on
March 20.
The victim told police that he
saw his male and female neighbors
arguing between Benson and Bath
avenues at 5:30 pm, but when he
tried to intervene, the man pulled
out a sharp object and slashed him
over the stomach.
Lotto looter
A thief nabbed lotto tickets from
a 86th Street bodega on March 19.
An employee told police that the
bandit entered the store on the corner
of 14th Avenue at 12:15 am and
walked behind the cash register,
where he pushed the employee and
nabbed the lottery tickets.
Cop conmen
Two men hoaxers stole $600 from
a man on Bath Avenue on March 19.
The victim told police that the
men fl ashed police lights from their
sedan and posed as cops between
Bay 32nd Street and 23rd Avenue at
9:30 pm, before snatching $600 and
his wallet and driving away.
— Rose Adams
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A Bedford-Stuyvesant man has
been charged with second-degree
murder after a fatal building fi re
left one man dead on March 16.
Prosecutors for Brooklyn District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez have
accused Derek Whitaker, 54, of
killing 55-year-old Mount Vernon
resident Jonathan Blake. Whitaker
has also been charged with arson,
concealing a corpse, tampering
with a witness, and hindering
prosecution at his Jefferson Avenue
apartment building, according
to offi cials.
First responders rushed to the
building near Marcus Garvey
Boulevard on March 16 just after 2
pm, and when New York’s Bravest
extinguished a small blaze there,
they found Blake’s body with severe
burns in the basement.
A spokeswoman for the city’s
Chief Medical Examiner did not
immediately provide a cause of
death for Blake.
Police took Whitaker into custody
at the 81st Precinct shortly after
and arrested him on March 18
on arson and related charges, before
deeming the death a homicide
on March 22
Whitaker faces 25 years to
life behind bars for his alleged
crimes.