October 13, 2007 / News / Police Blotter / Carroll Gardens–Cobble Hill

Teardrop terror

By Ariella Cohen

The Brooklyn Paper

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A gunman with a tattoo of a teardrop under his left eye is wanted for the armed robbery of two Red Hook bars, police said.

The robber struck most recently on Sept. 30 at a watering hole on a strip of Columbia Street near Hamilton Avenue, pointing a black handgun at the bartender while emptying the tavern’s cash register of $670 in the 3 pm heist.

The Sunday afternoon crime appears to be connected to a violent robbery that happened seven days earlier at a nearby bar on the corner of Pioneer and Van Brunt streets, an officer said. That stickup ended with the bartender tied up with duct tape in a bathroom.

The suspect is a 5-foot-6, Hispanic man, with a tattoo on his neck, as well as the aforementioned teardrop, which, in gangland culture, could signify that thatwearer has killed someone. It can also symbolize the death of a loved one, or membership in a gang.

Shot dead

A 26-year-old man was killed in a fiery dispute on Oct. 7 outside the same Red Hook elementary school where stray bullets killed beloved principal Patrick Daly in 1992.

The man, Andres Garcias, was shot in the torso around 5:30 am and pronounced dead soon after, police said. An ambulance took his shooter, also 26, to Long Island College Hospital where he was treated for serious bullet wounds. He remains in critical condition, police said.

The early morning gunfight happened on the corner of Sullivan and Van Brunt streets, an intersection that most recently appeared in the news when a traffic light was installed to help schoolchildren cross the street safely.

Before that, the murder of Patrick Daly drew national attention to the area’s violent drug trade. A major drug bust last year had many residents hoping that the street wars had finally ended. Garcia’s murder is the third this year in the 76th Precinct.

Kicked

Two teenage hoodlums attacked a 13-year-old boy for his lunch money on Oct.1, police said.

The 17-year-old thugs accosted the younger boy on Hoyt Street between Wyckoff and Warren streets at 3 pm, punching their middle-school-age prey in the face and kicking him in the ribs before fleeing with an American Eagle wallet containing two Metrocards and $5.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper