CITYWIDE

Girl Remembers Dead Sanitation Worker

A 5-year-old girl said a tearful farewell to the sanitation worker who saved her from a burning building a year ago and was shot dead in a street dispute a week ago. Emani McCovery cried while remembering Damon Allen at his funeral. “I want him to come back,” she said. Hundreds of friends and relatives attended the Saturday funeral for Allen, who caught the little girl when her father was forced to throw her from a window of a burning building. “It’s just so sad,” said the girl’s mother, Karen Tapper. “He saved my daughter, but who was there to save him?” Allen was killed in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn September 4 by a man who had robbed someone there of a wallet, been chased away and then returned with a gun, witnesses told police. Allen, 33, tried to calm the robber and clear bystanders from the area and was shot, the witnesses said. The Department of Sanitation said it would retire Allen’s badge number. The department’s commissioner, John Doherty, attended the funeral and called Allen “a credit to mankind.”

— Associated Press

NATIONWIDE

Many in U.S. Worried About Another Attack

Many in the United States worry about another terrorist attack, according to a recent Associated-Ipsos poll. Half of those surveyed say the attacks five years ago changed the way they live, and about the same number express doubts about the fight against terror. Some findings from the AP-Ipsos polling:

• Not quite half in this country, 43%, say they are worried about another terrorist attack in America.

• For those living in the New York and Washington areas, most fear their own communities will be struck again — higher than the level of fear of an attack on their own communities elsewhere in the country.

• Half in this country say the September 11 attacks have affected the way they lead their lives today. Those people were most likely to report being more cautious, more suspicious of people around them, being uncomfortable in public places and being wary of public transportation.

• President Bush still gets high marks for his handling of the September 11 attacks, with about six in 10, 59%, saying they approve.

• Just over half in the poll, 51%, say they doubt that Osama bin Laden will ever be caught.

• Half say they feel the cost of fighting terrorism may be too high.

• Almost half, 45%, say they have less faith in the government’s ability to protect them.

• Six in 10 say they expect there will be more terrorism because of the U.S. war in Iraq.

The AP-Ipsos polling of about 1,000 adults was conducted in two waves between August 7-17 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

School Bus Overturns, Injures Students

A school bus carrying a dozen children overturned in the Bronx yesterday, sending eight children to the hospital with minor injuries, police said. Police said the accident occurred around 7:30 a.m. when the school bus collided with another car at the intersection of East 175th Street and Washington Avenue in the Tremont section of the Bronx. The collision forced the bus onto its side, according to police. Twelve students were riding the bus at the time, and eight were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with minor injuries, police said. No summonses were issued, police said.

— Special to the Sun

Penn Station Evacuated

A brief bomb scare prompted officials to evacuate Penn Station yesterday morning amid heightened security on the fifth anniversary of September 11. Police said a suspicious package was reported near the retail area of the Amtrak terminal around 8:25 a.m. The report prompted authorities to evacuate the station, seal its Seventh Avenue exit, and halt train traffic on Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, and New Jersey Transit trains, a spokeswoman for Amtrak, Tracy Connell, said. By 8:39 a.m., authorities issued an “all clear” resolution, having determined that the suspicious package in question was a duffel bag filled with trash. The spokeswoman said trains experienced only minor delays.

— Special to the Sun

Officers on 911 Call Apprehend Suspect

Officers on routine patrol yesterday apprehended a man suspected of shooting and killing a Brooklyn man after they happened to see the perpetrator fleeing the scene, police said. Around 6:30 p.m., officers chased and caught a man they spotted running on Woodruff Avenue in Kensington, police said. Subsequently, they received a 911 call reporting a man shot nearby and learned that just minutes earlier, a 23-year-old victim had been shot three times in the chest. The victim, whose name was not released pending family notification, later died at Kings County Hospital. As of last night, charges against the suspect, who also was not immediately identified last night, were pending.

— Special to the Sun

TRISTATE

Animal Welfare Activists To Be Sentenced

TRENTON, N.J. — Six animal welfare supporters face up to seven years in prison when they are sentenced in federal court today. The members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, and the organization itself, were convicted in March of using a Web site to incite threats, harassment, and vandalism against a Britain-based company that tests drugs and household products on animals. The government charged that the group waged a five-year campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, posting information about the employees at its East Millstone lab and about those who do business with the company.

— Associated Press