A Brooklyn man taken into custody in East New York late on Sunday has been charged in the killing of imam Maulama Akonjee and his assistant Thara Uddin outside the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque in Ozone Park, Queens, on Saturday. Oscar Morel is charged two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, police said Monday night.
Here’s a question on every New Yorker’s mind: Where is it going to happen when it happens in New York City?
High-powered New York City real estate developer Aby Rosen has sent his business partner Jared Kushner a pretty rude message. A new billboard at a construction site Rosen owns at 337 Lafayette Street in Manhattan exhorts passersby, in huge white letters, to “Vote Your CONSCIENCE!” On Monday, Rosen posted a photograph of the billboard to Instagram with the caption, “Wake up America.”
Jon Kushner, cousin to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is considering a run for New York City mayor, a person familiar with the young businessman’s thinking told Gawker. “He’s always had political ambitions, but he’s not an asshole,” the person said. “They’re the good Kushners.”
Regardless of whatever political good or harm it did, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s appearance at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday appears to have gotten under Republican nominee Donald Trump’s skin. “Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s run his business,” Bloomberg told the DNC. “God help us.” (Folks!) “I’m a New Yorker,” he continued, “and I know a con when I see one.”
I was sitting eating a bland Panera sandwich, at the decidedly bland corner of Arch and Twelfth Streets in Center City Philadelphia, when I spotted a row of familiar red berets out the window. The Guardian Angels are in town!
A Brooklyn attorney, Carrie Goldberg, has asked the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice to open a joint investigation into the New York City Department of Education, alleging an “epidemic” of administrative malpractice when it comes to sex crimes in city schools.
In a meeting last week described by one staffer as “the most depressing pep talk,” Bill de Blasio, New York City’s beleaguered mayor, asked members of his administration to keep the faith amid proliferating controversies. “He told us that no one is going to thank him for ‘not being dead,’” the staffer told Gothamist, “because the homicide rate is down and Vision Zero is working.”
On Wednesday, police arrested more than a dozen people who were allegedly selling tourists fake tickets for ferry rides to the Statue of Liberty. The ferries, police said, never actually stopped at the Statue of Liberty, but rather circled New York Harbor before docking again.
Mariam Dansoko, a three-year-old girl, was crossing the street near Yankee Stadium with her mother yesterday when she noticed an approaching car. “Mommy, the car is coming,” she said. By the time her mother turned around, the driver of the oncoming Nissan Altima struck Mariam, giving her injuries that later killed her. The driver was not arrested at the scene and will likely not be charged with a crime.
After a false start and a spell of glum weather, New York is finally starting to feel springlike this week—just in time for 4/20. If you’re the type who likes to celebrate the day, and who likes to do it outdoors rather than in the safety of your living room, take heed before you smoke weed.
At long last, the federal probe into corruption at the NYPD reveals something interesting. The investigation, which has penetrated the upper echelon of the department, uncovered evidence that powerful officers had sex with a prostitute dressed as a flight attendant on a private trip to Las Vegas, according to the New York Post.
