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FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com FEBRUARY 4, 2016 • THE COURIER SUN 3 Photo courtesy of Catherine Stanzoni-Acevedo Faculty and students at P.S. 207 rallied around the family of Khrone Arrindell (gray sweater) after his home was destroyed in a fire on Jan. 26. Howard Beach school rallies around student after fire destroys home By Robert Pozarycki rpozarycki@qns.com @robbpoz Khrone Arrindell showed up for class at P.S. 207 in Howard Beach on the morning of Jan. 27 only hours after he and his family suffered a tragedy. Arrindell’s South Ozone Park home caught fire the night before. Though everyone escaped without injury, according to teacher Catherine Stanzoni-Acevedo, all of the family’s possessions were destroyed, either by the fire or water damage related to the firefighters’ efforts to extinguish the blaze. Nonetheless, she noted, the dedicated 14-year-old appeared at P.S. 207 ready to take a test. But once administrators and the school community learned about what had happened, they showed their dedication to Arrindell and his family. Stanzoni-Acevedo, who had Arrindell in her class previously, reached out to his father and launched a GoFundMe account, collecting more than $7,000 in donations in just 24 hours. The school quickly set up impromptu clothing drives for Arrindell’s family of nine; school officials gathered toiletries and even arranged for a local motel to house the family for free for a couple of nights. Some of Arrindell’s classmates even began a collection to help him replace the Xbox video game system that he lost in the fire. “The outpouring of the support from the families here is crazy,” Stanzoni-Acevedo said. “Whatever support we can give, we’re trying to give it — because they have nothing.” Members of the P.S. 207 school community are now working to help find the Arrindell family a more permanent shelter than a motel room. The proceeds from the GoFundMe account will help the family pay immediate expenses and rebuild what they had lost. Stanzoni-Acevedo remarked that the generosity of local families is not surprising given that most of the families were in the same position just three years ago after Hurricane Sandy flooded and damaged much of Howard Beach in October 2012. SANITATION WORKER LIED ABOUT ON-DUTY ATTACK IN JAMAICA: POLICE By Alin a Surie l asuriel@qns.com/@alinangelica A sanitation worker who claimed to have been beaten and robbed on the job apparently made the whole thing up and was arrested on Jan. 27, according to police. Michael Morelli, 31, originally filed a police report saying he had been using a shovel to clean snow from a fire hydrant when two unknown men approached him on Jan. 27 at 4 a.m. In the report, Morelli claimed that the men pistolwhipped him and robbed $25 worth of cash and a Sanitation Department radio before fleeing. He was later treated at Jamaica Hospital. Morelli later recanted his story during a follow-up interview with investigators. According to police sources, Morelli was actually soliciting a prostitute during the time of his alleged attack and was later involved in a fist fight with two unidentified men. He lost his phone during the incident, but it was later recovered. He was charged in Jamaica’s 103rd Precinct for filing a false police report. The investigation is ongoing. Morelli is not one of the seasonal employees recently hired by the Sanitation Department to clean up the Blizzard of 2016. He is a uniformed worker and part of the regular employee ranks. According to the Queens District Attorney, he was issued a desk appearance ticket by NYPD and will appear in court on March 11.


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