FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com may 15, 2014 • The Queens Courier 3 109th Precinct donates $500 to elderly victims of robbery BY LIAM LA GUERE [email protected]/@liamlaguerre Being an NYPD officer goes further than just catching bad guys — it’s about helping the victims. Cops from the 109th Precinct in Flushing reached into their pockets to help out 71-year-old twin sisters who were robbed of their monthly income, the NYPD said on its Facebook page. The women were on their way home from a bank in Flushing on April 5 when they were followed into an elevator in their apartment building by Salvador Morales, who knocked them to the floor and stole the $1,100 in Social Security aid they just received, the NYPD said. One of the sisters suffered a fractured bone in her leg, and both were transported to New York Hospital Queens. After word of the crime spread through the precinct, Police Officer Anthony Lo Verme and Detective Kevin O’Donnell collected about $500 from their colleagues and donated the money in person to the victims, the police said. “When we heard that they had just lost their entire monthly income we all knew we had to help,” O’Donnell said. Morales, a 58-year-old man from Manhattan, was arrested in Brooklyn and has been charged with burglary, robbery and assault. Police were able to identify him from similar burglaries he pulled off in Coney Island in Brooklyn wearing the same “mask-and-hat get-up,” police said. Morales has at least 11 prior arrests for burglaries dating back to 1989, authorities said. The cops visited the women, who are still recovering, and handed the money to them at their bedsides. “Cops in New York City do things like this each and every day,” said Inspector Brian Maguire of the 109th Precinct. “I love the fact that my officers took it upon themselves and they rose to the occasion.” If You’re Ready to Buy a Home,We are Ready to Help. The State of New York M ortgage Agency offers: Up to $15,000 Down Payment Assistance 1-800-382-HOME(4663) for Housing www.sonyma.org Photo courtesy NYPD Detective O’Donnell and Police Officer Lo Verme of the 109th Precinct started the collection for the victims. RECONSTRUCTED SUNNYSIDE PARK TO HONOR LOCAL VETERANS BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] @aaltamirano28 Jim Breuer and Noreen Haddad were never able to say goodbye to their brother, lay flowers on a casket or visit him in a cemetery. Sunnyside resident Donald C. Breuer was 26 years old when he was killed in action in 1972 during the Vietnam War, and his body was never recovered. Now, after 42 years, Breuer’s memory will live on in the neighborhood he called home and in a park he and his siblings visited at a young age. Breuer’s name, which is on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., will now become part of a list of veterans from Sunnyside and Woodside that is being engraved on a commemorative plaque at Lance Cpl. Thomas P. Noonan Playground. “This was our Central Park, this was the park to come and play,” said Jim Breuer, who now lives in the Bronx. “It is going to be wonderful to see his name here. I think our mom would be very touched.” The plaque is part of the reconstruction and renovation of the Sunnyside playground, which was named after Lance Cpl. Thomas P. Noonan, a Marine who was killed in action attempting to rescue members of his company and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. “Noonan Playground is an important community hub for our seniors, families and local children,” Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said May 9 during the official groundbreaking of the playground’s reconstruction. “The renovations will make the park safer for children and forever commemorate the sacrifices our local veterans made for this great nation.” Van Bramer allocated $2 million to redesign and expand the local playground as well as to have a granite slab added to the base of the park’s flagpole as a monument to Noonan. The city’s Parks Department also received additional funding to renovate the basketball and handball courts. The renovation of the park, which is expected to be completed in one year, will include the addition of play equipment, a play area for children ages 2 to 5 and another for children ages 5 to 12, and a new rainbow spray shower. Additional planted areas are also being created within the playground along Greenpoint Avenue and 43rd Street. Lighting will also be improved, the main entrance will be partially reconstructed and new bike racks, benches, paving and fencing will be installed. Two years ago, Van Bramer launched a Noonan Park Community Design Initiative, which brought in community suggestions from students of nearby P.S. 199 and residents on what they wanted to be done at the park. “I believe great parks equal great neighborhoods and with the feedback we have received from the community we will rebuild a better playground that everyone can enjoy,” Van Bramer said.
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