New York Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
CITYWIDE
RAPPER AUTOPSY PENDING Autopsy results for the rapper known as O.D.B., who died at a Manhattan recording studio, will not be available for several days, the city medical examiner’s office said yesterday.
The cause of death for the entertainer will be announced “pending toxicological as well as tissue studies,” said a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, Ellen Borakove. She said the results could take more than a week.
O.D.B., whose legal name was Russell Jones, had complained of chest pains before collapsing at the Manhattan studio, said Gabe Tesoriero, a spokesman for Roc-a-Fella records. He was dead by the time paramedics reached him, Mr. Tesoriero said. The cause of death was not immediately clear, but O.D.B. had recently finished a prison sentence for drug possession and escaping a rehab clinic. He would have turned 36 today.
O.D.B., also known as Ol’ Dirty Bastard, was a founding member of the rap group the Wu-Tang Clan. Information about funeral plans was not immediately available, Mr. Tesoriero said. O.D.B. is the latest in a string of rappers to meet an untimely death, among them Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, who was fatally shot in late 2002, and the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, who were both shot to death in the late 1990s. Those killings remain unsolved.
– Associated Press
CITY LOSING OUT ON OTB PROFITS The city has been losing out on gambling profits from the state-run Off-Track Betting Corporation and it’s not because the odds haven’t favored the house, a new report says.
Income generated from the city’s stake in OTB, which takes money from bets on thoroughbred and harness racing, has dropped 36.2% in the last four years, according to a report from Rep. Anthony Weiner. Mr. Weiner, a Democrat who represents the ninth district in Brooklyn and Queens, used data from the city comptroller’s office to assert that a new 0.39% tax levied by the state on pretax profits reduced the city’s share.
Since 2001, the city’s share of OTB profits has fallen 89.6%, from $12.5 million to $1.3 million in 2004, according to the report.
Funding for the city is generated from two sources: a 5% surtax on all winning bets and a share of profits. Revenue from the surtax has stagnated at around $20 million for the past four years, which means the number of bets placed at OTB has also remained the same. The report outlining the drop in revenue comes as online gambling has taken off in recent years, with more than $1 billion in bets placed last year with almost 2,000 online sports books, according to Christiansen Capital Advisors, LLC, which tracks the gaming industry.
– Special to the Sun
GOTBAUM DERIDES VERIZON ON DIAL ‘INCONVENIENCE’ Public advocate Betsy Gotbaum at a press conference yesterday criticized a move by Verizon to discontinue its voice-dialing service in February for visually impaired customers.
“Not only will this be a great inconvenience for many who do not have other means of contacting family and friends, but during an emergency, the loss of this service could result in a tragedy,” Ms. Gotbaum wrote in a letter to the phone company.
The manufacturer has stopped making parts for the voice-activated service, and Verizon is asking customers to buy a small piece of equipment that can be attached to the phone to create essentially the same system, a Verizon spokesman, Daniel Diaz Zapata, said. “You still pick up the phone and ask to speak with XYZ and the phone connects you, but you just have to use this special device.”
A letter will be sent to visually impaired users, about one-quarter of 1% of Verizon’s 53 million customers, with information on the unit, its purchase price, and a special discount. Mr. Diaz Zapata said that while he did not know its price, the voice-activated service costs customers $5 a month, and that the cost of the new device would likely cost less over the long run.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
NYACK HOSPITAL BOARD TO VOTE ON PROPOSED MERGER The board of Nyack Hospital will vote today to decide whether to become a “sponsored hospital” of New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
The proposed merger could bring financial stability to the ailing Rockland county hospital. But it would come at the cost of control, with New York-Presbyterian holding the ability to hire and fire top hospital management. New York-Presbyterian Hospital could also choose to shut down Nyack Hospital but that is unlikely. Nyack hospital is currently a member of the New York-Presbyterian health-care system and an affiliate of Columbia University’s medical school. The merger, however, would inject needed cash into Nyack’s finances. Should the merger go through, Nyack would be renamed “Nyack Hospital of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System.”
– Special to the Sun
POLICE BLOTTER
PREGNANT WOMAN SHOT IN LEG A pregnant woman was accidentally shot in the leg by her submachine gun-toting boyfriend at his Brooklyn apartment yesterday, though she was not seriously injured, police said.
“They were in the bathroom and he shot her by accident with a fully-loaded MAC-10,” said a police source, referring to a compact, illegal submachine gun that fires 9 mm or .45-caliber ammunition.
Chance Kemer, 19, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Mr. Kemer has no prior criminal record.
Ebony Oden, 21, who is four months pregnant, was grazed in the right leg at 11:35 a.m. at 1487 Nostrand Ave., police said. She was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where she was treated and released Ms. Oden initially told police she did not know who shot her, according to a source. The MAC-10 was recovered.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
MAN KILLED, ROBBED IN QUEENS An unidentified man was shot, killed, and possibly robbed by at least half a dozen men on a desolate Queens street early Saturday morning, police said.
The victim, described as a 25 to 30 years old, was shot six times by a .45-caliber gun at 4:27 a.m. outside a Department of Environmental Protection plant at Elmhurst, police said. Six to eight men were witnessed fleeing the scene after the shooting, police said.
The victim, who was shot in the head, neck, and torso, was still alive when police responded to the scene in front of 97-05 Horace Harding Expressway. The victim was pronounced dead at 7:10 a.m. The victim had no wallet and therefore no identification, leading police to believe that he had been robbed. This is the fifth homicide to occur in the 110th Precinct this year, according to the department’s Compstat system.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
MAN ARRESTED IN STABBING Brooklyn police arrested a man on Saturday suspected of stabbing a rival to death on Friday in a dispute over a woman.
Police arrested Omar Pickens, 34, of Brooklyn, for allegedly killing Akinyele Gaskin, 31, also of Brooklyn, on Friday at his girlfriend’s Weeksville apartment. Mr. Pickens and Gaskin had been involved in an ongoing dispute, police said.
Mr. Pickens, who has two previous arrests for assault and one arrest for marijuana, was arrested at 67 East 89th Street, a location police described as a neighborhood hangout, and charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun