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.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

BRONX


POLICE: OFF-DUTY OFFICER SHOOTS ERRATIC DRIVER


An off-duty police officer, who graduated with the most recent class of police officers, shot a man several times after a bizarre series of encounters on the road, police said.


Yesterday at 2:35 a.m., the police officer, who reportedly works in a Manhattan housing unit, was on his way home after working a 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift. He was getting onto the Bruckner Expressway near Country Club Road in his personal vehicle when the suspect was backing off the entrance ramp. The suspect – who law enforcement officials said had an alcohol intake at three times the legal limit – allegedly rammed his vehicle into the police officer’s vehicle. The suspect fled the scene onto the highway, police said, with the officer following. The police officer pulled in front of the suspect, and the suspect allegedly struck the officer’s vehicle from behind. The suspect pulled over to the side of the road, as did the police officer.


The police officer confronted the suspect. A civilian witness stopped, and the officer asked the witness to call 911. During the course of the fight with the suspect, the police officer fired five rounds from his firearm, with two shots hitting the suspect, police said. The suspect sustained a gunshot wound to the left hip and buttocks area. The police officer suffered a fractured arm, broken finger, and numerous abrasions to his hands and knees from the altercation, police said. The suspect was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in serious condition, and the police officer was taken in stable condition to an area hospital. Charges are pending against the suspect, but police say they will likely include driving while intoxicated and assault. Police declined to release names of the officer, suspect, or civilian witness.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


MANHATTAN


TWO YOUNG WOMEN DEAD AFTER POLICE RUSH THEM TO HOSPITAL


Two 18-year-old women were found critically injured in an East Village apartment over the weekend, police said. On Friday at 6 p.m., police arrived at 484 East Houston St. and found the two women, Mellie Carballo, from Manhattan, and Maria Pesantez, from Queens. Both victims were taken to Cabrini Medical Center. Carballo was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. that day. Pesantez was declared dead yesterday. The medical examiner’s office is expected to determine the cause of death, but law enforcement officials suspect the women could have suffered overdoses.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


U.S. JEWS PRAY FOR FRIENDS IN ISRAEL


American Jews gathered in front of the United Nations yesterday to pray for friends abandoning their homes in the Gaza Strip as part of an historic withdrawal.


Several hundred people, many wearing prayer shawls and skull caps, stood before a Hebrew scroll, chanting as they awaited the official start of the withdrawal that will redraw borders and reshape prospects for Middle East peace.


“As emotionally tied in as we are to the imminent destruction of the Jewish community in Gaza, this is a day when we cry out to God rather than scream protest slogans,” an organizer of the service at the Isaiah Peace Wall, Glenn Richter, said. Israel sealed the Gaza Strip to Israeli civilians late yesterday.


Soldiers lowered a red road barrier at the Kissufim Crossing between Israel and Gaza, with a sign on the barrier reading: “Stop, entry into the Gaza Strip and presence there is prohibited by law.”


In New York, Esther Neistein held a sign that read, “Don’t make a legal terrorist state,” referring to the Palestinian Arab takeover of Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank. “This was Jewish land thousands of years ago, and we won it back in the Six Day War,” fought in 1967, Ms. Neistein said.


– Associated Press


BROOKLYN


HIKIND IN GAZA STRIP, DESPITE ISRAELI ORDER TO EVACUATE


Although the Israeli government instructed all Jewish settlers to leave the Gaza Strip by this morning, a Democratic state assemblyman from Boro Park, Dov Hikind, told The New York Sun shortly before the government’s midnight withdrawal deadline that he would remain inside the territory “for the time being.”


While the Israeli Defense Forces have now barred visitors from entering or staying in the Gaza, Mr. Hikind, who arrived at the largest Jewish settlement in the territory, Neve Dekalim, on Wednesday, said that he has no immediate plans to leave.


But speaking to the Sun by cell phone yesterday, Mr. Hikind added, “I don’t intend to get involved in any confrontation with the authorities.”


The Israeli government has said that it will wait until Wednesday before it begins to forcibly remove settlers who have not yet left the territory.


– Special to the Sun


STATEN ISLAND


EMT WORKER ARRESTED ON SEX CHARGE


A 12-year veteran emergency medical technician was arrested and charged by police with sex abuse. Yesterday at about 7:25 a.m., Michael Napoli, 45, brought an 18-year-old woman to the Emergency Room at St. Vincent’s Hospital on Staten Island, police said. She was going into the hospital for a miscarriage, Fire Department officials said. Once inside the medical facility, Mr. Napoli allegedly inappropriately touched the woman. The case of the Staten Island employee is under investigation by the Fire Department, of which Emergency Medical Services is a part. Mr. Napoli has no history of being disciplined by the Fire Department, officials said.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


STATEWIDE


REPEAL SOUGHT FOR DRUNKEN DRIVERS’ MEDICAL INSURANCE EXCLUSION


New York would join a growing list of states to repeal laws allowing insurance carriers to deny payment of medical bills for people injured while driving drunk under a measure sent to Governor Pataki. Under current state law, doctors and hospitals that try to collect payment for treating someone injured while intoxicated almost never get paid, even though state and federal law requires them to treat anyone injured.


Enacted in the late 1940s, the “alcohol exclusion” law aimed to save insurance companies money and keep intoxicated drivers off the road by forcing them to pay for treatment if they’re in an accident. Supporters of a measure to discard the law, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, say it discourages doctors from testing injured drivers for alcohol because insurance companies won’t have to pay for the treatment. That means drunken drivers will fail to be diagnosed, get counseling and will continue to endanger the lives of themselves and others, they contend.


– Associated Press

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

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.


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