Brooklyn
Cops are looking for a fast-food-loving thief who they say stole a woman’s purse in East Flatbush and used her debit card to treat himself to Popeye’s. The suspect snatched the 47-year-old victim’s bag on the B35 bus at about 6:10 p.m. on Dec. 31, police said. He then used her debit card to purchase items at a CVS store on Flatbush Avenue before buying some food at the chicken joint on Linden Boulevard near Utica Avenue, police said. Cops retrieved images of the suspect from surveillance video on the MTA bus.
The pregnant driver who was arrested by cops and escaped after asking to use the toilet at Brookdale Hospital has been hit with additional charges, police said. Carmen Riley, 30, was initially busted last Friday at about 2 p.m. after cops saw her driving a gray 2013 Nissan Altima along Atlantic Avenue in East New York without a seatbelt, officials said. After stopping Riley, police soon realized that the car she was driving was rented and was supposed to have been returned on Jan. 31, cops said. Because Riley’s license was suspended, she was charged with driving without a license and unauthorized use of a vehicle, police said. Riley told the cops she didn’t feel well, so they brought her to the hospital and she asked to use the bathroom, officials said. Officers removed her handcuffs and Riley slipped away at around 5:40 p.m., according to police. After nearly 24 hours on the lam, the suspect was found near Jamaica and Nichols avenues in East New York, cops said. She was charged with escape and obstruction of governmental administration, in addition to the driving charges, officials said.
The Bronx
A teenager was assaulted and shot in the hand in University Heights after saying no to a group of young men who asked him if he was a Bloods gang member, police said. The 15-year-old boy was approached by the three thugs outside 2327 Andrews Ave. North at about 10:40 p.m. Sunday, cops said. One of the men asked the teen if he was a member of the Bloods, according to police. After the youth told the group he was not a gangbanger, one of the men punched him, while another took out a stun gun, but it failed to work, police said. A third suspect pulled out a gun and shot the teen in the right hand, cops added. The victim was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The three suspects, all believed to be about 18 years old, remain at-large, cops said.
Manhattan
A woman’s body was plucked out of the East River, police said. The unidentified victim was spotted floating face-down about 15 to 20 feet from the shoreline near East 23rd Street at about 3:40 p.m. on Sunday, officials said. The badly decomposed corpse was removed from the 5-feet-deep water. There were no immediate signs of trauma and investigators were waiting for the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine a cause of death, police said. The victim is believed to have been in her 40s or 50s.
Staten Island
A smoldering sibling rivalry ended with the arrest of an Annadale woman who threw a flaming shirt at her younger brother, authorities said. Heba Moussa-Valentin, 33, fumed after her 16-year-old brother snatched her iPhone from her bedroom in their home on Drumgoole Road West at about 8 p.m. March 3, a Criminal Court complaint states. Moussa-Valentin told investigators that the teen had taken the phone to an Apple store and traded it for a newer model, and then refused to give it to her, the documents state. The sister then grabbed one of the teen’s T-shirts, set it on fire and threw it at him, the court papers say. The shirt the victim was wearing also caught fire, along with the carpet, dresser, a jacket and bed sheets, records show. All of the items were damaged but, miraculously, the teen was not hurt, authorities said. Moussa-Valentin was charged with arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, weapon possession, assault and harassment, according to a spokesman for Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan.