Cops have arrested two men in connection with a gunpoint robbery in which a local restaurateur was nearly shot.
Police said that one of the two thugs opened fire on a 31-year-old co-owner of Anapoli Ice Cream Parlor and Family Restaurant, 6920 Third Avenue, after they robbed him of over $1000 in receipts at 8:30 p.m. on September 28.
The victim said that he was walking to his car on Ovington Avenue near Third Avenue when he saw a man pull a mask down over his face.
The masked stranger then flashed a gun, announcing a robbery, officials said.
“I’m going to shoot you,” the man threatened. “Give me the f–kin’ knot.”
The thief swiped the money from the victim and ran off, letting a round go as he ran to an idling Honda driven by an accomplice.
Despite being shot at, police said that the victim had the wherewithal to commit the license plate to memory as it sped off.
The car was later linked to a resident of Shore Road, who said that he had loaned the vehicle to a friend.
That friend, identified as 26-year-old Anthony Tuozzo, was arrested for allegedly driving the getaway car. His alleged trigger-happy accomplice, identified as 30-year-old Katosh Pantoliano, was arrested a short time later, charged with robbery and attempted murder, police said.
A 30-year-old NYPD police officer who spent his days patrolling the streets of Bay Ridge was arrested in Mill Basin early Sunday following a booze-fueled accident that took the life of a 33-year-old woman.
Police said that Vionique Valnord, a security guard from Rogers Avenue in East Flatbush, had just left a wedding and was hailing a cab on East 56th Street and Avenue N at 1:10 a.m. on September 27 when she was struck by a Jeep being driven by Andrew Kelly of the 68th Precinct.
Kelly, a seven-year member of the force, was one of many witnesses to render aid to the woman. His four passengers, including an off-duty cop from the 70th Precinct in Flatbush, reportedly left the scene before responding officers arrived.
Paramedics rushed Valnord to Kings County Hospital where the woman — the daughter of a minister who performed the wedding she had just attended — died of her injuries.
Responding officers arrested Kelly, who was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated. He was immediately suspended from the force and was later released after making $200,000 bond.
Officials at the scene said that a cup of beer was in his jeep when the accident took place.
Kelly, they alleged, had been drinking a full two hours before the accident as he watched a football game at a friend’s house. Yet, according to recent reports, Kelly’s Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) was 0.0 when he was ultimately tested on the night of the accident. The test, however, was taken seven hours after the incident, according to the New York Post.
The off-duty cop that was with Kelly at the time of the accident, who has been identified as Police Officer Michael Downs, has also been suspended from duty.
Downs allegedly didn’t tell his superiors what had happened until he showed up to work at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, officials said.
Thieves circumvented the locks to a neighborhood salon and spa by going under the building it was found in, area cops were told.
Workers at Cavale Tonuzi, 8211 Third Avenue, said that they showed up for work at 8:40 a.m. on September 20 and found that the cellar doors had been forced open.
Police later determined that someone entered the building through the cellar, scrambled up into the salon and took a safe holding $2,000 and some checks.
A thief broke into a Bay Ridge Parkway dental office last week, taking two prescription pads that, in the right hands, could be worth more than gold.
Office employees said that someone entered the office near Fifth Avenue sometime after closing at 6:30 p.m. on September 21.
The pads, which could be used to authorize potent prescription drugs to the highest seller, were the only thing taken, the 58-year-old dentist said.
Police are looking for a flim-flam artist who took a 75-year-old woman’s Social Security and disability card after claiming to be from a local Social Security office.
The woman told police that the thief, described as a 5’8”, 225 black male in his forties, entered her apartment on 85th Street near 13th Avenue on the afternoon of September 23 and passed himself off as a government representative.
The thief then told the woman that he needed her to sign a few documents. He also needed to see her benefit cards, which he ultimately walked away with, police said.
The senior was later informed that no Social Security employees had been dispatched to her house.
A thief used a fire escape so he could raid those hard-to-reach places on 68th Street near Fifth Avenue last week.
A 44-year-old woman told police that she returned home to her apartment at 8 p.m. September 21 and found her apartment ransacked. Some jewelry, a Louis Vuitton bag, laptop computer and a PlayStation game console was missing.
Cops were later informed by a neighbor that a 5’8”caucasion male in his 20s sporting a red baseball cap and a goatee was seen on the fire escape on the afternoon of the burglary.
Cops are asking anyone with information about this man to come forward. Calls can be made to the 68th Precinct at (718) 439-4211. All calls will be kept confidential.
A 59-year-old woman had a wallet plucked from her purse by a thief who stuck to her like a shadow as she ran errands along Fifth Avenue.
The woman told police that on the afternoon of September 25 she went to the Bank of America on Fifth Avenue and 69th Street and then to the nearby “Mites” donut shop.
All the while, she felt that someone was following her, she said. It wasn’t until she reached a grocery store on Fifth Avenue near 68th Street that she realized someone had taken her wallet, as well as $115.
When she asked store workers to spool back the video footage, it could be clearly be seen that the victim had been shadowed by a Caucasian woman in her thirties during her entire visit to the store.
Police were looking for this phantom woman as this paper went to press.
A woman’s instincts turned out to be right, albeit delayed, when the hairs on the back of her head told her that someone was following her on Bay Ridge Parkway last week.
The 56-year-old told police that she had just parked her car on 74th Street just before 1 a.m. on September 17 and was walking to her home when she heard the sound of footsteps behind her.
She whirled around to protect herself, but the thief was already on top of her, cops said.
The thief shoved the woman to the ground and ran off with her purse, camera and passport after a brief tug-of-war.
Police said that they were still searching for the thief, described as a white male, and another man who reportedly stood across the street acting like a lookout.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to come forward.
Calls can be made to the 68th Precinct at (718) 439-4211. All calls will be kept confidential.
