Staten Island
A suspect stole a woman’s purse at a Dongan Hills bowling alley before the victim’s credit cards were illegally used at a liquor store, authorities said. The 19-year-old victim left her bag unattended on a chair at Rab’s Country Lanes on Hylan Boulevard, and the thief scooped it up at about 1:45 p.m. last Saturday, police said. The booze buy with the victim’s credit cards that had been in the purse came a short time later, cops said. The suspect was described as about 5-foot-5 with a stocky build, investigators said.
The Bronx
Transit cops busted a South Bronx turnstile jumper and found a loaded gun in his backpack, authorities said. Jescy Townsend, 18, was with his cousin when cops spotted him illegally entering the 149th Street/Third Avenue subway station on the 2 and 5 lines at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, investigators said. When officers approached, Townsend handed the bag to the cousin and sprinted onto a train as the doors closed, cops said. In the backpack, the officers found a loaded .22-caliber pistol and an ID card listing Townsend’s address. They tracked him down in East Harlem at 1:30 a.m. Thursday. He was charged weapon possession and theft of services. His cousin, who had entered the station legally, was not charged with a crime, cops said.
Cops are looking for a man in connection with car-tire slashings close to a Crown Heights Jewish senior center. He punctured the tires of 12 cars on Lefferts Boulevard between Troy and Albany avenues outside the Shalom Senior Center last Friday at 9:05 p.m., police said. Video released by cops shows the suspect walking down the block, but does not show him slashing any tires. The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.
Brooklyn
Cops are looking for two suspects who at a Fort Greene cafe allegedly made off with a woman’s wallet as well as credit cards that were then illegally used to purchase pricey goods in Manhattan. After a 40-year-old woman returned home from the Greene Grape Annex on Fulton Street near South Portland Avenue on June 27, she started receiving fraud alerts on her phone and realized she no longer had her wallet. Cafe surveillance video showed a man with the victim’s wallet at 5:20 p.m. that day, the same time the woman was there. Cops say there five unauthorized purchases were made with the cards in Nolita, totaling about $3,000.
Police arrested a suspect in the beating of a man in East New York who later died, authorities said. Shawn Benjamin, 42, and Kirk Graham, 39, got into a fight at Alabama and Riverdale avenues at about 9:45 p.m. on June 29, cops said. Amid the brawl, Benjamin was decked and struck his head on the pavement, and died four days later at Brookdale Hospital. Police announced on Thursday that Graham had been arrested and charged with assault. Officials would not immediately say if charges against him would be upgraded in the wake of the victim’s death.
Manhattan
Port Authority cops pulled over a car they witnessed go through a Holland Tunnel E-ZPass lane without the required electronic tag — and soon learned that the driver was unlicensed and owed more than $37,000 in unpaid tolls. Willie Reyes, 34, was pulled over in Jersey City outside the Manhattan-bound tube at about 5 a.m. Thursday, police said. The driver told a PAPD captain that he had simply forgotten his E-ZPass. But the captain ran the driver’s license and learned that it had been suspended, and that Reyes was a scofflaw with 580 toll violations on his record. Reyes was charged with theft of services and unlicensed driving.
Police released surveillance photos of the suspect who allegedly slashed a man in the face in front of the victim’s autistic son after an argument at a Lower East Side subway station. The men started arguing after the 45-year-old victim asked the suspect to stop blocking a turnstile at the Delancey-Essex Street station on Sunday at about 6:30 p.m., cops said The suspect allegedly grabbed the victim’s phone and shattered the screen. He then fled onto a Brooklyn-bound M train, police said. The victim with his son followed the suspect onto the train and rode one car behind him. At Myrtle Avenue, the victim confronted the suspect, who pulled a boxcutter and slashed him. The victim was taken to a hospital where he was listed in stable condition. Cops described the suspect as about 30 years old with a thin build.