12 THE COURIER SUN • MARCH 23, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM police beat COMPILED BY EMILY DAVENPORT, SUZANNE MONTEVERDI COMPILED BY EMILY DAVENPORT, ANTHONY GIUDICE AND ROBERT POZARYCKI • Masonry “When Only The Best Will Do!” Great Quality, Fair Pricing! COMPILED BY EMILY DAVENPORT, ANTHONY GIUDICE AND ROBERT POZARYCKI 106nd Precinct Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill Ozone Park robbers use shopping app to lure victim They made him an offer he couldn’t refuse — and would live to regret. Cops are looking for two gunmen who used a shopping app to lure a man to Ozone Park on the morning of Friday, March 17, and rob him of a bundle in cash. Law enforcement sources said the robbery occurred just before 8:30 a.m. on March 17 in front of an apartment building on 88th Street just south of Liberty Avenue. According to police, the suspects made contact with the 28-year-old male victim through the app OfferUp, a mobile marketplace that handled $14 billion in transactions last year. Customers use OfferUp as a classified to buy and sell all sorts of items including antiques, clothing, jewelry and even vehicles. When the victim met with the suspects, police said, they displayed firearms and forcibly removed $1,700 in cash from him, then fled the scene in an unknown direction. Officers from the 106th Precinct responded to the incident; the man was not injured. Police described the suspects as black males with short hair. The investigation is ongoing. Rikers guard busted for covering up inmate beating A corrections officer from Springfield Gardens faces federal charges for allegedly beating up an inmate at Rikers Island two years ago. Rodiny Calypso, 38, allegedly assaulted an inmate without physical provocation while the inmate was handcuffed behind his back and filed a false report in order to cover up the incident. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, at around noon on Feb. 27, 2014, Calypso relieved another corrections officer while the inmate was in the shower. Moments later, he had a verbal exchange with the inmate. When the inmate was done showering, federal prosecutors said, Calypso allegedly rear-cuffed the inmate for removal and looked in the direction of two officers who were near the scene. Authorities said Calypso then opened the shower door and allegedly punched the inmate repeatedly in the face. He went into the shower area and put the victim in a headlock and punched him several more times in the head. At this point, Calypso started to lose his footing and clung onto the victim’s side, officials say. A second officer, who was near the shower at the time, arrived and restrained the victim, allowing Calypso to regain his footing and elbow the victim five times in the head. The assault caused lacerations to the victim’s face and head. The entire attack was captured on surveillance video and witnessed by multiple inmates whose cells were positioned opposite the shower area. Following the assault, Calypso filed a “Use of Force Report” and attempted to justify his conduct by falsely stating that the victim had spit on him and attempted to spit on him again. He also misstated portions of the assault, leaving out the punches that were delivered while the the victim was in a headlock and claimed the victim was hit in the upper torso. Calypso was charged with one count of deprivation of rights under color of law and one count of filing false forms. If convicted, Calypso faces up to 30 years in prison. Detective honored for cracking Vetrano case An NYPD lieutenant who helped make an arrest in the six-month-long investigation into the murder of Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano was honored by his hometown residents in Middle Village on the night of Thursday, March 16. Lieutenant John Russo, who grew up in the Maspeth and Middle Village areas and now lives in Howard Beach, received the Juniper Park Civic Association’s (JPCA) hero award during the March 16 session at Our Lady of Hope School. Russo used his intuition to remember a person he saw lurking around Spring Creek Park months before Vetrano’s body was found at the location on Aug. 2, 2016. After scouring records, Russo found a name connected to the summons handed out to the suspicious character, Chanel Lewis, 20, of East New York, Brooklyn. Lewis was taken into custody in February, and a DNA sample matched the evidence found on Vetrano’s body and at the crime scene. Lewis was charged with Vetrano’s murder on Feb. 6. “Here’s a guy, a great detective, did his homework, had a hunch and it paid off,” said JPCA President Robert Holden in presenting Russo with the group’s newly created Hero Award. “This will be a hero award that we’re going to give in your honor every year to an outstanding officer in the city of New York.” Russo thanked the communities for their support in not only providing hundreds of tips in the Vetrano case, but for helping the police department on many cases by having a working relationship with the NYPD and the officers. “I was born in Maspeth, I spent the first half of my life hanging out in Maspeth and then as a teen I spent most of my teenage years in Juniper Park,” Russo told attendees. “So I have a strong connection to this neighborhood. I moved to Howard Beach recently, and now, like this community, I’m a member of that community.”
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