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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2019 16 pages • Vol.Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint 42, No. 21 • May 24–30, 2019
BACK TO WORK Video evidence prompts reinvestigation of hit-and-run
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
The police are looking back
into an investigation of a driver
who hit a cyclist on Vanderbilt
Avenue and fled the scene, after
this paper reported the incident
on May 16.
Cops with the 88th Precinct initially
closed the case of a the motorist
who sideswiped Queens resident
Jason Gan near Willoughby
Avenue on May 6 without making
arrests, because they didn’t
have the car’s license plates, according
to a spokeswoman for the
department — but decided to give
it another look after this reporter
sent the department a first-person
video of the incident that Gan
posted online on the day of the
collision.
“I spoke to the commanding officer
and was informed the report
was closed because the cyclist was
hit by an unknown vehicle,” Det.
Denise Moroney said in an emailed
statement. “I shared the plate information
and the complaint has
since been opened and the squad
is looking into the matter.”
Gan sustained injuries to his
arm and leg after the gold-colored
Nissan Altima with out-ofstate
plates knocked him off his
bike and sped off.
The 22-year-old told this paper
he was on his way back from
running errands in Gowanus and
the driver honked at him when he
YouTube
A Clinton Hill cyclist with a camera caught the moment a
driver knocked him off his bike before fleeing the scene on
Vanderbilt Avenue on May 6.
swerved to avoid a double-parked
car, just before 5:30 p.m.
“After that I moved all the way
over to the right as close as I could
to the parked cars,” Gan said.
But the driver apparently grew
impatient and sped up, hitting
Gan’s handlebar with his side mirror,
knocking him into the car’s
back panel before he hit the asphalt,
according to cyclist.
“All of a sudden I can hear him
accelerating towards me and the
minute I see his front panel, I can
tell that he is way closer. Then his
mirror got my handlebar and back
panel hit my body,” he said.
The cyclist believes that the
driver intentionally hit him because
the car was able to pass another
biker right behind him without
a problem.
He also said that the driver sped
off because there was a police car
about a block ahead of them.
“There’s a cop car like 50 feet
in front of me — I think that’s why
the guy sped off so fast, because
he saw that and reacted to that,”
he said. “It just sucks a lot.”
This is his third time a motorist
has struck Gan and made a run for
it, the cyclist said. The first time,
a driver hit him in East Williamsburg,
leaving him with a concussion
last October and he said he
was struck again in Greenpoint
in February.
BLIND SPOTS
What Vision Zero overlooks
Brooklyn’s streets are proving
to be treacherous for cyclists.
Since the beginning of this 2019,
10 cyclists died at the hand of drivers,
with eight of the fatal collisions
in Brooklyn and three of those in
just the last four days.
Gan was happy to come out of
the incident with just minor injuries
and was thankful for the
other cyclists and pedestrians who
stayed on the scene with him until
police arrived.
He was also glad to hear that
the department is reopening his
case, but said he has learned from
his previous interactions with the
Boys in Blue that they don’t take
cases seriously where the victims
aren’t severely hurt.
“Unless there’s a serious injury
— broken bones or something
like that — the police treat
it as a motor vehicle accident, not
a felony,” he said.
But the department spokeswoman
said that police takes every
accident seriously.
“The NYPD takes every accident
seriously and investigates
every case with sensitivity and
care,” Moroney said. “We courage
all people to share information
that could further an investigation.”
David Parson and Cathy Hartwell celebrate finishing the Brooklyn Half Marathon on the
Boardwalk in Coney Island on May 18.
RUN IN THE SUN
Runners endure miles of fun in half marathon
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
Fitness fanatics the world over
gathered in Prospect Park for the
39th-annual Brooklyn Half Marathon
on Saturday, where the runners
pushed themselves to the
very limit of human endurance
— to snag one of Nathan’s Famous
hot dogs!
“The minute you get to Coney
you know there’s a party in the
end,” said Sunset Park resident
Connie Bree, who celebrated her
one-hour, 46-minute finish with
one of the Coney Island eatery’s
delicious dogs. “That’s going to
See MARATHON on page 6
NYC now brings their boats to the Yard
New Navy Yard ferry is part of Astoria route ing waterborne commuters will
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
The city opened its newest ferry
stop at Fort Greene’s Navy Yard
on May 20.
The Economic Development
Corporation, the quasi-governmental
agency tasked with growing
the city’s economy that operates
the ferry system, added the
only Kings County landing to the
Astoria route, which sets sail from
the northern hinterlands of Queens
and terminates on the distant isle
of Manhattan.
The brand-new berth sits adjacent
to the Navy Yard’s Dock 72
and passengers who aren’t tenants
at the industrial complex must enter
at Flushing and Vanderbilt avenues
and pass through Building
77, a spokeswoman for the ferry
operator Hornblower told Community
Board 2’s transportation
Committee on May 16.
“They’re going to allow nontenants
to walk through Building
77 and there’s going to be a gate
that’s going to be open out the
back,” said Elana Ehrenberg.
The landing is accessible to people
with disabilities and bike-bear-
have to pass through the yard’s
Clinton Avenue gate and tell the
security guard there that they’re
going to the ferry, according Ehrenberg.
The crossing to Manhattan will
take some 10 minutes and the new
stop will add four minutes to the
route’s overall travel time, totaling
at 45 minutes one way, according
to the agency.
Boats will launch into the East
River between every 25–50 minutes,
according to its new summer
schedule .
The Astoria route had an average
daily ridership of 2,728 during
weekdays and 2,421 on weekends
in 2018, according to the agency’s
data .
The new stop is part of Hizzoner’s
latest expansion plan of
his beloved ferry service he announced
last January, which will
include new ports of call in Coney
Island , the Bronx, and Staten
Island.
The city’s newest ferry stop is coming to Fort Greene’s
Navy Yard this week.
Economic Development Corporation
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
A dead body floated into the
basement water-catchment area
of a Joralemon Street building in
Brooklyn Heights on May 15, according
to police.
The body — which officers
could not identify for age or gender
because it was heavily decomposed
— flushed into the basement
through a large pipe that connects
the East River to the building at the
corner of Furman Street around
9:50 a.m., according to a spokeswoman
for the NYPD.
The building is a 1902 water
pumping station, but has since
been turned into an upscale resi-
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
A Williamsburger faces up to
25 years to life behind bars for
allegedly brutally attacking his
girlfriend with an ax and killing
her pregnant friend at a Flushing
Avenue apartment, District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office
announced on May 17.
Jerry Brown, 34, is charged
with second-degree murder, second
degree attempted murder,
and first-degree assault for allegedly
assaulting his 21-yearold
girlfriend and slaying her
friend Savannah Rivera, 20, on
April 20.
He allegedly attacked the two
women with an ax inside his girlfriend’s
eighth-floor apartment
at Humboldt Street, while her
4-year-old daughter was in a
nearby room just before 1:30 a.m.,
which Gonzalez described as a
horrifying attack that has scarred
the local community.
“The brutality of this attack,
which claimed the life of a pregdential
building known as Pumphouse
Mews.
Police responded with officers
and detectives after a resident
called to report a foul odor, cops
on the scene told this paper.
Photo by Paul Martinka
The cause of death is not yet
known, according to a spokeswoman
for the city’s chief medical
examiner and the investigation
remains ongoing, the police
spokeswoman said.
Body in
cellar!
A grisly fi nd in
Bklyn Heights
Police found a severely-decomposed body inside a basement
water catchment area of a building on Joralemon
Street, after the carcass apparently flushed in from the
East River through a large pipe on May 15.
Indictment in ax murder case
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez
Facebook
indicted Williamsburger
Jerry Brown on May 17 for the
murder of Savannah Rivera,
pictured, on April 20.
nant mother and left a second
young mother fighting for her life,
is truly appalling. These horrifying
alleged actions have traumatized
two families and shocked
Photo by Erica Price
our community,” Gonzalez said
in a statement. “I intend to prosecute
this case vigorously and hold
the defendant responsible for the
violent crimes with which he is
charged.”
Brown allegedly killed Rivera
by hitting her repeatedly with the
ax, before hacking away at his
girlfriend, causing severe lacerations
to the back of her head and
gashes to her torso, arms, and
throat, according to the district
attorney’s office.
The authorities have not publicly
released Brown’s girlfriend’s
name because she is the victim
of a crime.
His girlfriend then got outside
the apartment and approached an
Uber car that was stopped at a
traffic light and the driver called
911. Paramedics later rushed her
to a Queens hospital where she remains
in critical condition.
Emergency personnel were the
first on the scene and two officers
from the 83rd Precinct who
showed up afterwards were subsequently
suspended by the Police
Department for “failure to take
appropriate action,” by reportedly
not mentioning the child, ax,
or dead woman in the apartment
while requesting backup.
When the two officers showed
up, paramedics reportedly relayed
to them that the injured woman
told the emergency service personnel
that Rivera was likely
dead in the apartment and that
her own daughter was still upstairs,
begging them to save the
child, law enforcement sources
told WNBC.
The cops also reportedly stayed
at the building’s entrance for almost
an hour, leaving the child
and Rivera alone upstairs for that
time, the sources told the broadcaster.
Brown surrendered himself at
the 90th Precinct later that day
around 5:30 p.m. and confessed
to attacking Rivera, according
to police.
Brown was ordered held without
bail and told to return to court
on Aug. 9, according to the authorities.
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