FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 28, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Photo by Suzanne Monteverdi/The Courier
North Shore Farms supermarket
opening in Whitestone delayed again
Shirtless man sought for
attacking senior
Detectives need
the public’s help in
finding the shirtless
suspect who
invaded a Flushing
senior’s apartment
last week.
Law enforcement
sources said
the incident took
place at 4 p.m. on
June 21 inside an
apartment building
in the vicinity of
Kissena Boulevard
and Beech Avenue.
According to
authorities, the suspect
entered the
63-year-old man’s
apartment and confronted
him. He
then threw the victim to the ground, removed his cellphone
and fled out of the apartment building; authorities
said he was last seen heading westbound on Beech
Avenue.
Officers from the 109th Precinct responded to the
incident; the victim was not seriously injured.
On Monday, June 25, police released security camera
footage of the suspect, who’s described as a black
man between 19 and 22 years of age, standing 6 feet
tall with a slim build. He wasn’t wearing a shirt at the
time, but police said the suspect had a white cover on
his head and wore dark-colored pants and white-andblack
shoes.
The crook was also seen toting a black drawstring bag
with the words “Jimmy Jazz” affixed to the front, police
noted.
Anyone with information regarding the suspect’s
whereabouts can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS
(for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA), visit the Crime
Stoppers website or send a text message to 274637
(CRIMES), then enter TIP577. All calls and messages
are kept confidential.
Robert Pozarycki
Former Flushing doc pays
for botched abortion
A Long Island man with a medical practice in
Flushing will spend time behind bars for botching an
abortion procedure that led to the death of his 30-yearold
patient.
Dr. Robert Rho, 55, of Great Neck, pleaded guilty to
criminally negligent homicide on May 4 after the jury
had been deliberating for two days. He was sentenced
to serve 1 1/3 to four years in prison.
According to trial testimony, the victim made an
appoint at Dr. Rho’s practice, Liberty Women’s Health
of Queens, for July 6, 2016. She arrived with her sister
that day and the abortion was performed at 1 p.m. The
practice has since shut down.
During the procedure, Dr. Rho caused a laceration
to the victim’s cervix; a perforation of the uterine wall;
and a disruption and transection of the uterine artery.
While in the recovery room, authorities said, the victim
began to bleed profusely, and Rho performed a procedure
to stop the bleeding; however, he didn’t realize
that she needed emergency care.
Dr. Rho, prosecutors said, failed to give the victim
timely medical attention and encouraged her to
leave despite her lethargic appearance and the excessive
bleeding.
Prosecutors said that the victim left the facility with
her sister, then — while on their way back to their
Bronx home — fell off of the back seat and lost consciousness.
The victim was transported to a local Bronx
hospital and underwent treatment for vaginal bleeding.
Despite being provided six units of blood, she ultimately
died that same evening.
“This was a very sad case. A 30-year-old woman, who
had recently graduated from college and had her whole
life ahead of her, died as the result of this botched procedure,”
said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “The
doctor has accepted responsibility and admitted his
failure to provide adequate care following surgery. The
defendant has now been sentenced to prison as a result
of his inaction.”
Emily Davenport
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Whitestone residents will have to wait
a while longer for a long-anticipated
supermarket as the chain faces further
delays, a spokesperson told the Courier.
North Shore Farms’ newest location
at Whitestone Plaza will open “no
later than the second week of October,”
according to spokesman George Tsiatis,
though the company hopes to be operational
sooner. The supermarket chain,
after the Courier made an inquiry in
March, indicated that a June opening
was in the works.
Despite the delay, the company still
“is committed to the space and the
neighborhood,” Tsiatis stressed, and
North Shore Farms signage will go up
at the location during the second week
of July.
“We hoped to have already been open,
but we needed to do much more extensive
work on the space than had been
anticipated and ran into some delays
that were beyond our control,” the
spokesman said. “We are continuing to
work diligently on the space every day to
prepare it for opening.”
The deal with North Shore Farms was
first announced in October 2016 after
months of speculation in the community
and the storefront was first slated for
a summer 2017 opening. The chain will
occupy 23,818 square feet at the mall
on 153rd Street and 10th Avenue and
feature locally sourced foods at affordable
prices.
After Waldbaum’s closure at the
Whitestone site in November 2015,
locals were left without a neighborhood
supermarket. Shortly before North
Shore Farms announced its lease agreement
in 2016, residents drafted a petition
for a new supermarket and delivered
it to the Feil Organization, owner
of the shopping center.
North Shore Farms is working to assume this storefront in Whitestone Plaza
link
