By Gabriel Rom
Police from the 102nd Precinct have made an arrest in connection with a March 2 group-assault that left a 24-year-old man in critical condition.
A 15-year-old boy was taken into police custody March 15, the NYPD said, close to two weeks after the assault on the corner of 85th Street and Jamaica Avenue.
The teen faces several charges, including attempted murder, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon, according to police. He is being held on $300,000 bond or $150,000 cash bail, police said.
“I don’t foresee that person coming out to the streets anytime soon,” Jose Severino, community affairs officer for the 102nd Precinct, told the audience March 19 during a meeting of the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association.
The victim was found bleeding in front of Scaturro’s Food Market at 84-39 Jamaica Ave., but police said the stabbing occurred in front of a bodega on 84th Street and Jamaica Avenue.
Police said five to six males approached the victim, conversed with him, then stabbed him twice in the neck.
According to Inspector Deodat Urprasad of the 102nd Precinct, fast responding officers were able to save the man’s life.
The stabbing came only 12 days after a 39-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman were shot inside the Rico Chimi hamburger restaurant located at 80-01 Atlantic Ave.
Lt. Estrella of the 102nd Precinct said police were looking for an individual who came from Brooklyn and that the restaurant shooting was likely related to gang activity or a personal dispute.
“This was premeditated,” Estrella had told the February Woodhaven Residents Block Association meeting. “The suspect went after a specific person.”
Estrella said the investigation was ongoing, but that the main aggressor in the Rico Chimi shooting had been arrested.
In 2010, directly above the scene of the March stabbing crime, Dario Paiva was fatally stabbed on an elevated subway platform at the 85th Street-Forest Parkway station on the J line.
Three years later, Natasha Martinez was stabbed on 85th Street in a suspected gang attack.
Both incidents occurred within a one-block radius of the March 2 attack.
Estrella said in February the precinct had enjoyed recent success in combating gang activity within Woodhaven.
There are two active gangs in the area known to police, he said, and both of them have large numbers of members who have recently been incarcerated.
Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@
