POLICE BLOTTER

MAN POSES AS OFFICER, ROBS STATEN ISLAND MAN

Police arrested a man they said posed as a police officer and robbed a Staten Island man Saturday. Manuel Velazquez, 33, of Harbor Road in Staten Island, was arrested following the Saturday morning robbery on Ames Street. The victim, 21, was riding his bicycle around 8:30 a.m. near his home when Mr. Velazquez approached him, said he was a police officer, and demanded entry into his home to see his green card. Mr. Velazquez searched the home and allegedly left with a plastic bag containing a PlayStation and assorted jewelry, including a watch. He also took the victim’s wallet, with an unknown amount of cash in it, police said. While canvasing the neighborhood, the Staten Island robbery squad located Mr. Velazquez, who was wearing a green jacket and blue jeans, police said.

– Special to the Sun

HUMAN REMAINS FOUND ON STATEN ISLAND

Three men discovered the skeletal remains of a man on Staten Island Saturday night, police said. The men found the remains of a white man between the ages of 40 and 60 in the cargo area of an abandoned truck that was parked in a wooded area near Ellis Street and Arthur Kill Road. They were reportedly salvaging scrap metal when they discovered the remains, which appeared to be intact, police said. The medical examiner’s office will investigate the cause of death.

– Special to the Sun

POLICE ARREST BROOKLYN ROBBER IN MULTIPLE THEFTS

Police arrested a Brooklyn man they say robbed five banks and a shoe store over the past five and a half weeks. Peter Donnell, 56, of Sheepshead Bay Road, was identified in a lineup after robbing a Commerce Bank on Avenue U on Friday afternoon and subsequently arrested. Upon arrest, he made written and verbal confessions, police said. Mr. Donnell is also suspected in at least five other robberies, including one on January 4 at the same Commerce Bank; one on January 17 at HSBC bank on Pennsylvania Avenue; another one on January 17 at North Fork Bank on Avenue U, and another one at the same Commerce Bank on January 27.Police also said Mr. Donnell robbed a Fabco shoe store on February 3.

– Special to the Sun

MAN BEATEN AND ROBBED IN CENTRAL PARK

A 61-year-old man was beaten up and robbed in broad daylight yesterday in Central Park, police said. Chuangang Zhao, of East 97th Street, was walking inside the park on the East Drive near East 97th Street when four men approached him from behind. They reportedly punched him in the eye, causing him to fall to the ground, and then stole his Canon digital camera. Mr. Zhao was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital for a contusion to the right eye, where he was treated and released police said. He was unable to identify the suspects to police, who believe the men are between the ages of 17 and 20.

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

COUNCIL TO TARGET PATAKI’S EDUCATION BUDGET

The City Council will target Governor Pataki’s education budget today in a hearing on the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. Council members have long pressed the governor to adhere to a judge’s ruling in the CFE lawsuit that the state owes the city’s schools billions more in annual funding. The governor has appealed the ruling. The new speaker, Christine Quinn, signaled earlier this month that she would make state education funding a priority. The council introduced a resolution on the issue, and 48 of its 51 members signed a letter to Mr. Pataki expressing their “great concern and disappointment” at the funding allotted for city education in the proposed budget.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SHOW AND SNOW: LOTS OF UNDERDOGS AS STORM HITS WESTMINSTER

Young and spry, Lashes trotted out the hotel door, headed toward Madison Square Garden – and plopped right into a snowdrift. Suddenly, the little Chinese Shar-Pei from Louisiana was over her head. “She’s never seen snow before,” owner Lisa Myers said yesterday. A day before America’s most prestigious dog show started, Westminster took on a different feel because of the record-setting storm. Central Park, where a lot of contestants like to take a last-minute walk, was blanketed with more than 2 feet of snow. Yet even with the area’s three major airports shut and driving treacherous, many of this year’s 2,622 entries already made it into town. About 1,100 dogs stay at the Hotel Pennsylvania across the street from the Garden, and about 850 of their owners, breeders, and handlers had checked in by mid-afternoon. “They seem to like the snow,” a hotel representative, Jerry Grymek, said. “I saw a couple of St. Bernards run right into it. You know how people make snow angels? They were making snow dogs.”

– Associated Press