4 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 28, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
‘Avonte’s Law’ passes
through Senate
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
A New York Senator’s bill to help protect developmentally
disabled or aging individuals has moved a step closer
to becoming law.
“Kevin & Avonte’s Law,” which establishes a voluntary
alert program for missing developmentally disabled
children, adults and aging seniors, passed the Senate on
Dec. 21. It has been sent to the House of Representatives,
where it is in committee.
Sponsored by NY
Senator Chuck Schumer,
the bill would create and
fund a program to provide
voluntary tracking
devices and expand support
services for families
who care for someone
with autism, dementia or
other special needs where
“bolting,” “elopement” or
“wandering” from parents
or caregivers are a
possibility.
Th e move was in part
motivated by the story
of Avonte Oquendo, an
COURIER fi le photo
Man robs Woodhaven store with
fake gun and loses fi ght with clerk
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
edavenport@qns.com / @QNS
Police are looking for a man who
held up a Woodhaven corner store
with a fake gun and got into a fi ght
with a store employee last week.
At 2:40 a.m. on Dec. 21, law
enforcement sources said, the crook
entered a convenience store located
Photos courtesy of the NYPD
Avonte Oquendo State: Put historic cemetery in Flushing on registers
autistic student who went missing aft er wandering out
of his high school in Long Island City one day in 2013.
Aft er months of searching, the Rego Park teen’s remains
were tragically discovered on the shore of the East River.
Th e bill is also named in honor of 9-year-old Kevin
Curtis Wills, a boy diagnosed with autism who, aft er
wandering from his home, drowned in a river by his
home in Iowa in 2008.
Almost half of children diagnosed with autism have
wandered from their caregivers at some point, according
to a 2012 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A 2017 report by the National Autism Foundation also
found that between 2011 and 2016, nearly one-third of
missing-person cases of those with autism resulted in
death or required medical attention.
Th e bill would renew the federally funded “Missing
Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Alert Program” and expand
it to cover children with developmental disabilities. Th e
program would be renamed the “Missing Americans
Alert Program” and its authorized funding level would
be doubled to $2 million a year.
Th e bill would also ensure the dedicated Department of
Justice (DOJ) grant funds are made available to local law
enforcement and nonprofi t entities to provide wandering
prevention training and purchase the tracking technology.
Th e locating devices can be worn as non-tampering
wristwatches and anklets, clipped onto belt loops
or shoelaces, or woven into specially designed clothing.
If the user of the device is discovered missing, the caregiver
notifi es the device company and a trained emergency
team responds to the area. Recovery time for
“Project Lifesaver” users, a maker of one of the devices,
averages 30 minutes, which is 95 percent less time
than it takes to fi nd those without these tracking devices,
according to Schumer’s offi ce.
Similar services are only off ered in two-thirds of New
York’s counties, Schumer said. Th e legislation will ensure
these services are off ered to all New York residents.
“I hope that the House of Representatives will rally
together to fi nally pass this legislation, which is essential
to the families of loved ones with Autism Spectrum
Disorder and other special needs, into law,” Schumer
said. “Passage of this bill will help Avonte Oquendo’s
memory live on, while helping to prevent any more children
with autism from going missing.”
Schumer fi rst introduced the bill in 2015. Th e 2017 bill
was reintroduced by Senator Chuck Grassley, IA.
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
Th e fi nal resting place of nearly
1,000 African American and Native
American people in Flushing
should be recognized on the State
and National Registers of Historic
Places, according to Governor
Andrew Cuomo.
Th e governor announced on Dec.
22 that the Olde Towne of Flushing
Burial Ground, located on 165th
Street near 46th Avenue, is among
23 historic sites across the Empire
State recommended for inclusion
on the registers.
Once known as “Martin’s Field”
or the “Pauper Burial Ground,”
the cemetery’s signifi cance came
to light in the 1990s, when the
Parks Department embarked on
renovating the site. Even though
its past was well documented in the
Flushing Journal and other sources,
the burial ground had become
the Flushing town commons when
the Parks Department acquired it
in 1914.
In the 1930s, under the leadership
of Parks Commissioner Robert
Moses, the Parks Department
began transforming the land into
an active playground for children.
While excavating the site, the Parks
Department noted, workers found
evidence that people had been buried
there, including pennies that
had been placed upon the eyes of
the dead.
Th e discovery, however, did not
thwart Moses’ plans, and the playground
opened in 1938. Th e park
included a wading pool, a baseball
fi eld and swing sets.
Research found that the former
town of Flushing acquired the
The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground has been recommended for inclusion in the
State and National Registers of Historic Places.
land from the Bowne family for
use as a cemetery in the middle
1800s. Th e area had been hit with
a cholera epidemic in 1840, followed
four years later by a smallpox
outbreak; both events claimed
many lives. Townspeople chose to
inter cholera victims at the new site
because they feared that the infected
remains would contaminate the
local church cemetery.
Advances in medicine, public
hygiene and scientifi c knowledge
resulted in fewer cholera deaths and
interments in the Olde Towne of
Flushing Burial Ground. However,
starting in the 1880s, the Town
of Flushing used the site again as
a fi nal resting place for African
American and Native Americans
in the area who died. Th e Flushing
Journal wrote editorials calling on
the town to use the site aft er the
local African Methodist Episcopal
(AME) Church ran out of space in
its graveyard.
Photo courtesy of Parks Department
Members of the Bunn family,
who were parishioners of the AME
Church, were buried in the Olde
Towne of Flushing Burial Ground.
Th eir names are etched on the only
marked gravestones at the site. Th e
last known interment there took
place in 1898, as the cemetery was
closed.
An archeological study that the
Parks Department commissioned
in 1996 found that between 500
and 1,000 people had been interred
at the burial ground. More than
half of them were children under 5
years of age.
Th e Parks Department fi nished
renovations at the site in 2004, a
project funded by then-Borough
President Helen Marshall and
then-Councilman John Liu. Th e
improvements included a paved
area with a central stone featuring
the site’s history, a historic wall,
new trees and a modernized toddler
playground.
at 78-21 Atlantic Ave. Once
inside, the suspect approached the
35-year-old employee, pulled out
what appeared to be a fi rearm and
demanded money.
Authorities said the clerk then got
into a physical altercation with the
crook, during which the employee
grabbed the weapon. Th e worker later
told police that the weapon felt like
plastic, and he believed it was fake.
Following the struggle, authorities
said, the suspect fl ed the store
empty-handed and was last seen
heading westbound on Atlantic
Avenue. Th e clerk was not injured.
Anyone with information regarding
the robbery can call the 102nd
Precinct Detective Squad at 718-
805-3212; all calls are kept confi -
dential.