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A BITTER PILL
Foreigner
charged for
killing local
store owner
Coney civic leaders refuse to
support planned rehab center BY KEVIN DUGGAN
NOT WANTED: Members of Community Board 13’s Health Committee
refused to issue a letter of support for the planned LSA Recovery facility
on Stillwell Avenue, claiming recovering addicts can already seek
treatment at two other rehab centers in the neighborhood.
Photo by Steve Solomonson
Prosecutors charged a foreign
national and former
Brighton Beach resident with
second-degree murder for allegedly
beating a neighborhood
shopkeeper to death in
a 2009 robbery, and then fl eeing
to Australia, the district
attorney announced.
The defendant, a citizen of
Turkmenistan, faces up to 25
years to life in prison if convicted
of the top count, and
his long-awaited prosecution
brings some closure to
Vladislav Tolstykh and his
family a decade after the horrifi
c crime occurred, according
to Eric Gonzalez.
“For nearly 10 years, the
family and friends of Vladislav
Tolstykh have waited for
this defendant to be prosecuted
for a truly ruthless
attack,” Gonzalez said following
the suspect’s Feb. 4 arraignment
in Kings County
Supreme Court.
The defendant and another
man allegedly ambushed
Tolstykh inside a
parking garage on Brighton
11th Street at Brighton Beach
Avenue — near a supermar-
Continued on page 12
brooklyn outlet
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
City and state leaders must revoke
their approvals for a new
outpatient substance-abuse recovery
3906 2ND AVE
INDUSTRY CITY, BK
up to
60% off
center in Coney Island,
and instead help area addicts
by shuttering booze vendors
in the neighborhood, according
to a local who panned the
center at a recent community
board meeting.
“I’m not really for it,” said
Jeff Sanoff. “Let’s get rid of liquor
stores.”
Sanoff and fellow Coney Islanders
voiced their concerns
about the LSA Recovery facility
during a Feb. 4 meeting of
Community Board 13’s Health
Committee, where other locals
argued the center could
bring undesirable characters
to the neighborhood.
“It’s not a good attraction,”
said CB13 member Pat
Brown.
Six Health Committee
members unanimously voted
against the panel issuing a
letter of support for the center
— a formal missive LSA
Recovery program director
Ertuania Jorge requested to
show community backing for
the facility, which the state offi
ce of Alcohol and Substance
Abuse and the city offi ce of
Mental Health and Hygiene
already approved applications
for.
Jorge, however, still hopes
CB13’s full board will ultimately
vote in favor of issuing
the letter at its Feb. 27 general
meeting, because she wants to
work in tandem with the community
— where the center’s
services are urgently needed,
she said.
“I’m very surprised that
they rejected it, with the opioid
epidemic and everything
that’s going on, and the services
we’re going to provide,”
she said.
In 2017, 1,487 city residents
died from unintentional drug
overdoses — and Coney Island,
together with Brighton
Beach, Manhattan Beach,
and Sheepshead Bay, racked
up higher-than-average overdose
deaths that year, with
an average of 22.3 fatal incidents
occurring among every
100,000 residents of those
neighborhoods, compared to
Continued on page 12
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