12 THE COURIER SUN • AUGUST 18, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com police beat COMPILED BY ANTHONY GIUDICE AND ROBERT POZARYCKI Wet Basement? Call artie Basement Water Proofing Specialist Serving Queens for 35 Years For more information contact Artie DiBiase Mason Contractor 718.767.0072 Licensed #08097 and Insured The Perfect Pet is Waiting for You! NORTH SHORE ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA has HUNDREDS of puppies, kittens, dogs and cats to choose from! Mixed-breeds, purebreds, small breeds too! OPEN DAILY FOR ADOPTIONS SUN - THURS 10 AM - 9 PM FRI - SAT 10 AM - 10 PM animalleague.org • 1.516.883.7575 25 Davis Avenue • Port Washington, NY Home of the Mutt-i-gree® FOLLOW US: 1.516.883.7575 102ND PRECINCT Kew Gardens, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Woodhaven Homeless man gets 15 years in prison for fatally beating a man with a rock in Forest Park A formerly homeless man is now spending the next 15 years in a jail cell for bludgeoning a man to death with a rock following an argument in Forest Park last year. Zoltan (a.k.a. Steven) Forai, 45, pleaded guilty on June 30 to fi rstdegree manslaughter for the June 2015 killing of Diego Piedrahita, 23, whose body was found a week after his death in the vicinity of Park Lane South and Woodhaven Boulevard. Forai was sentenced on Aug. 10 to serve 15 years in prison and fi ve years’ probation. According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, Forai and Piedrahita, who resided on Booth Memorial Avenue in Flushing, were known to each other and got into a fi ght sometime between June 8 and 9, 2015. Prosecutors said Forai kicked Piedrahita in the head and body, then picked up a rock and smashed him in the face and head multiple times. The deadly beating triggered a massive search and increased security in the days after Piedrahita’s body was discovered. Forai, whom police had identifi ed as a person of interest in the case, was spotted on June 19 drinking beer at the corner of Woodhaven Boulevard and Myrtle Avenue. Prosecutors said Forai had shaved his beard in order to avoid looking like the bearded version of himself, which was featured in a photograph that police issued. He was initially arrested for drinking in public before being charged with Piedrahita’s death. “By his actions, Forai showed a total disregard for human life, and the sentence meted out by the court is justifi ed to keep the public safe and to punish him for this senseless crime,” Brown said. 106TH PRECINCT Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill Mother and son shot and injured during an argument inside their South Ozone Park home A single bullet struck and injured a mother and her son during an apparent dispute with a third individual inside a home in South Ozone Park early in the morning of Aug. 11, police sources said. The shooting took place at about 2:37 a.m. on Aug. 11 inside the residence on 113th Street near 109th Avenue. According to authorities, a 49-year-old woman was awoken from her sleep by a verbal argument outside her bedroom between her 24-year-old son and the shooter, who is known to them. When she stepped outside her bedroom, police said, the gunman opened fi re on her son, striking him in the forearm; the same bullet wound up grazing the mother’s head. The suspect then fled the scene in an unknown direction. Offi cers from the 106th Precinct and EMS units responded to the incident. Both the mother and her son were taken to Jamaica Hospital and were listed in stable condition with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Armed robber holds up six cellphone stores across Queens and Brooklyn, cops say Cops have linked a pair of recent robberies — one in Richmond Hill and one in Jamaica — to a citywide robbery pattern that includes four other locations across Queens and Brooklyn over the last month. All of the locations targeted by the suspect — described as a black male, approximately 35 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with black hair — have been cellphone stores, police have reported. In each incident the suspect entered the location, brandished a fi rearm and demanded cash from an employee or forcefully removed cash from the register before fl eeing the stores. Cops have linked a pair of recent robberies — one in Richmond Hill and one in Jamaica — to a citywide robbery pattern that includes four other locations across Queens and Brooklyn over the last month. According to police, the robber entered the Metro PCS store located at 135-02 Jamaica Ave. in Richmond Hill, within the confi nes of the 102nd Precinct, on Thursday, July 21, at 2:33 p.m., where he displayed a fi rearm and demanded cash while wearing a mask to conceal his face. After placing the cash in a plastic bag, the robber fl ed the scene heading eastbound on Jamaica Avenue. And on Saturday, Aug. 6, at 6:19 p.m., the suspect targeted the Boost Mobile store located at 153-23 Hillside Ave. in Jamaica, within the confi nes of the 107th Precinct, where he displayed a black and tan fi rearm and demanded cash, cops said. He then fl ed the scene fl ed the scene eastbound on Hillside Avenue with the cash. According to offi cers, the suspect’s other targets in this pattern include: - the Metro PCS store located at 3358 Fulton St. in Brooklyn; - the Boost Mobile store located at 9321 Church Ave. in East Flatbush; - the Metro PCS store located at 8815 Flatlands Ave. in Canarsie; and - the Boost Mobile store located at 416 New Lots Ave. in East New York. Anyone with information in regards to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS or for Spanish 888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website, or texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
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