FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 9, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
Man shoots himself in
College Point park
Th e 25-year-old man who was discovered
shot in the head inside Powells Cove Park in
College Point on Aug. 2 apparently took his
own life, according to police.
Offi cers from the 109th Precinct responded
to a 911 call at 7:56 a.m. on Aug. 2 inside of the
park located off the intersection of 11th Avenue
and 133rd Place.
Upon arriving at the location, the offi cers
discovered Erick Franco, 35, of Norwalk,
Connecticut with a single gunshot wound to
the head, unconscious and unresponsive. He
was pronounced dead at the scene.
Law enforcement sources said a fi rearm was
located and recovered in close proximity to the
man’s body.
Franco was transported to the Medical
Examiner’s offi ce for an autopsy to offi cially
determine the cause of death, police said. Th e
investigation determined that Franco’s gunshot
wound was self-infl icted.
Robert Pozarycki
Three hit by lightning
in severe thunderstorm
Th e severe thunderstorm that ripped through
Queens on Aug. 7 left fl ooded streets, power
outages and three people struck by lightning
in its wake.
According to multiple reports, two men were
playing soccer in Flushing Meadows-Corona
Park at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday
night when the lightning struck. Th e two were
reportedly taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center
where one of the men was in critical condition
and the other sustained non-life-threatening
injuries.
Just before 8 p.m., reports of another lightning
strike victim surfaced. According to FDNY
offi cials, a single victim was struck near 155th
Street and Baisley Boulevard in Jamaica. Th e
victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries
and was transported to Jamaica Hospital
Center.
Ryan Kelley
TWA hotel at JFK now
accepting bookings
Th e much-anticipated TWA Flight Center
hotel is now accepting event bookings for its
event space and outdoor terraces.
Set to open in the spring of 2019, the hotel
will be the fi rst on-campus hotel at JFK Airport.
Th e hotel’s developers, MCR and Morse
Development, has unveiled renderings of several
of the hotel’s ballrooms and event spaces.
Each event space in the hotel will be equipped
with 5GB Wi-Fi and audiovisual and teleconferencing
equipment. Th e 45 event rooms, which
includes two ballrooms and a pre-function
space, and fi ve hospitality suites can host up to
1,600 people. On-site event planners and logistics
experts will be available to help any event
from start to fi nish.
In addition to the hotel’s 50,000 square feet of
event space, there will be an additional 200,000
square feet of fl exible space in the former TWA
terminal.
To book an event, call 212-806-9000 or email
events@twahotel.com. For more information
on the event space, visit twahotel.com/events.
Emily Davenport
Photo courtesy of Jenna Bagcal/THE COURIER
Cleanup continues after College
Point/Whitestone twister
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com/ @jenna_bagcal
Residents in Whitestone and College
Point experienced a tornado late on
Aug. 2 that left evidence of its presence
throughout the streets.
Th e National Weather Service
(NWS) sent out a tornado warning to
Queens and Bronx residents around
10 p.m. on Aug. 2. According to a
report, the NWS would be conducting
a preliminary storm survey in the
aff ected areas to determine whether
or not a tornado occurred.
Th e NWS ultimately confi rmed that
an EF-0 strength tornado touched
down in the area. Th e twister, as wide
as a football fi eld (100 yards) and packing
winds between 75 and 80 mph, hit
near St. Fidelis Catholic Church, then
traveled in an east-northeast direction
about 0.7 mile. It struck the southern
edge of Powells Cove Park before
fi nally dissipating.
Lifelong College Point resident Bill
Hermel stood outside of his home
on 127th Street and watched as Con
Edison worked to remove the massive
tree that had fallen into the road.
“Around 10:30 p.m. the whole
house shook. My wife was getting
ready to walk the dog and she said
‘Well what happened?’ Th en I came
out,” he said.
“It’s not just this tree, you should
see the one in my backyard,” said
Hermel, who showed QNS a 37-yearold
tree that had fallen and missed
his house. He added that it was lucky
nobody got hurt.
Th e resident said that this was the
fi rst time he recalled a tornado aff ecting
the area.
“Th e only big thing that happened
was Superstorm Sandy in 2012. So
things have been getting crazy lately.”
Other residents a block over on
126th Street and 15th Avenue were
not hit as hard as their neighbors.
One resident said that she was in
the bathroom when she noticed her
“lights fl ickering” while another said
that a few shingles on his roof were
blown off . Strewn branches and hanging
power lines could also be seen in
the surrounding blocks.
Th e “microburst,” as some called it
on Friday morning, was a huge cause
for concern for Alfredo Centola, the
president and founding member of
the “We Love Whitestone” group.
Centola sent out a media release asking
the city to trim trees down to a
safer level in the event of future severe
weather.
“Th ere are trees planted throughout
our community that are not suited for
the environment,” wrote Centola in
the email. “Many trees with root systems
that spread out at surface level
and or straight down into the sewer
system. Th ese threes sic with the
surface root system are destroying
sidewalks and eating curbs. With the
saturating storms we now get during
the summer months as well as the
fi erceness of these ‘micro bursts’ and
tornados, isn’t it time our government
put the safety of its residents fi rst?”
Th e Whitestone resident enclosed
photos with his email and said that
the trees pictured had been reported
at least 100 times to 311. He added
that the homeowner whose house
was next to the tree had city pruners
come, but they had not acknowledged
the “compromised root systems”
that could prove dangerous for
the residents.
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