Commander’s Positive Update In Sunnyside
The 108th Precinct’s commanding officer reported a steep crime decrease to attendees during the 108th Precinct Community Council meeting last Tuesday, Sept. 30, at Sunnyside Community Services.
At the first meeting following the summer recess, Capt. Brian Hennessy told attendees that crime is down in the precinct by 11 percent as compared to the same 28-day period last year.
“We went down in crime overall, pretty much, for the majority of the summer,” he said. “For the last 28 days itself, we’re down 12 overall crimes for an 11 percent decrease.”
One resident asked Hennessy if break-ins and robberies are up. Another said that noise form establishments on Vernon Boulevard is keeping them up at night.
The captain said he should call 311, but the resident claimed he has many times, to no relief.
Hennessy said that 311 calls are sometimes not responded to quickly because they are answered second to emergency 911 calls.
“Complaint calls get answered after 911 calls,” Hennessy stated. 911 calls get priority to 311.”
To address the situation he said the command will “speak to the manager and try to get some mediation. And if we have to get some enforcement, we’ll do enforcement.”
In the last 28 days there were no murders, versus one in 2013, and two rapes against zero, Hennessy said. In both sexual assaults the perpetrator was known to the victim, he said.
Over the period there were17 robberies versus 13 last year, Hennessy stated.
Additionally 12 felony assaults, versus 12 occurred within the 108th Precinct; 15 burglaries against 13; 36 grand larcenies compared to 51; and 13 stolen vehicles versus 17 last year, Hennessy said
Addressing robberies, Hennessy said, “over the course of the last 28 days we do have 17 of them, three of them were pharmacy robberies. There was one school related robbery where two individuals approached a kid behind one of the high schools in LaGuardia College. One of the kids put the student in a bear hug. There was a fight over five dollars.”
“One of the kids put the kid in a bear hug while the other kid stabbed him. And they were both apprehended a short time later,” he added.
Looking for leads
Hennessy gave attendees an update on two homicides that occurred this summer, one at the end of June, and the second in late July.
In the first incident, a 56-yearold man was walking down Roosevelt Avenue at 69th Street just after midnight. As he was walking past one of the bars, there were four individuals hanging out outside, and as he walked past, one struck him in the face with a fist for an unknown reason, according to Hennessy.
The victim subsequently fell back onto the sidewalk, hit his head and later died from his injuries at Elmhurst General Hospital, the captain said. No arrests have been made in connection, and the inquiry is still ongoing, he stated.
In the second incident two suspects have been apprehended, “we expect a few more in the future,” Hennessy said.
The second incident occurred on July 26 outside the Queens Palace catering hall and nightclub on 57th Street in Woodside. The trouble began around 1 a.m., as a beef between three rival groups, two of which were inside, ended in a shooting, the captain said.
When the third group tried to get inside the venue, but was denied entry by bouncers, one individual pulled out a gun and began shooting into the crowd. As people fled from the scene, Hennessy noted, one individual ran back.
He was subsequently assaulted and later died from his injuries at Elmhurst General Hospital, Hennessy stated.
Talking traffic
Hennessy said traffic related fatalities have also decreased, with none so far this year after 12 in 2013.
Hennessy credited the decline to more stringent traffic enforcement and the mayor’s Vision Zero initiative.
“It’s been due to large, targeted enforcement and concentrating efforts in problematic areas,” Hennessy said. “We have significant increases in speed summonses, significant increases in failing to yield to pedestrians, significant increases in bicycle summonses, We are up 60 DWI arrests from last year, 112 versus 52.”
“There’s a lot of hard work going in there, and it’s really paid of in that field,” he added.
Before the meeting, Community Board 2 member Al Volpe distributed a letter to the editor he wrote that was printed in a local newspaper that in part criticized bicyclists for riding unsafely and disobeying traffic laws.
“How many tickets to bikers did you give since the last meeting?” he asked the captain.
“Since the last meeting, I would say well over a hundred, probably close to 200, but in the last 28 days, it’s been 39.”
“Over a hundred to bikers. Wonderful,” Volpe replied
Cop Of The Month Award
P.O. John Miszuk received the Cop of the Month award for September, donated by the Times Newsweekly, for an arrest he made in connection with a string of commercial burglaries in the area.
The suspect committed three burglaries of neighborhood pharmacies by displaying weapons and demanding percocet and Vicodin pills.
The first occurred on Sept. 2, at a store on Greenpoint Avenue, where the suspect displayed a gun and demanded pills, the captain stated. Three days later the same suspect walked into another pharmacy, this one on 43rd Avenue and did the same thing.
The precinct then set up on some locations that might be targeted by the crook, in the event one would be hit again, Hennessy said.
At around 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, the suspect robbed a pharmacy on Queens Boulevard near 43rd Street, according to the captain. This time he pulled out a knife and again demanded percocet and vicodinAshort time later officer Miszuk arrested him a few blocks away with the help of an eyewitness.
“It wasn’t just my own actions,” he said.
Hennessy agreed, “it was a big team effort to make this arrest,” he said.
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The 108th Precinct meets on the last Tuesday of each month at Sunnyside Community Services, 43-31 39th St. Meetings begin at 7 p.m.
