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.

POLICE BLOTTER
Police Say Man Killed His Brother by Mistake
A man accidentally shot and killed his older brother at a Christmas party early yesterday morning, police said. Officers responded to a 911 call around 3:45 a.m. from an apartment in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx. At the residence police said they found Jorge Gonzalez, 28, with a gunshot wound to his head, and a .357 caliber revolver. Gonzalez died later at Jacobi Hospital. His brother Fidel Gonzalez, 24, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
— Special to the Sun
Teenager Shot and Killed
Candles marked the spot where 15-year-old Pashad Gray lay fatally wounded from gunfire before being taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Family and friends gathered at the makeshift memorial to the slain teen Sunday night. Pashad was shot in the chest at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday outside the Queens apartment building where he lived. After falling to the street, his attackers unloaded several more bullets into him, police said. Law enforcement officials said they have no idea who Pashad’s attackers were, or what their motive was for killing the ninth-grader at John Bowne High School. Family members pleaded for answers, and asked anyone who might have seen the shooting to come forward.
— Associated Press
Police: Man Took Photos Up Mall-Goer’s Skirt
A Long Island man who snapped photos up the skirt of a teenage girl while she shopped for shoes at a mall was arrested after her aunt spotted him and yelled for help, police said yesterday. The 28-year-old Brentwood man approached the 14-year-old girl in a store on Friday, kneeled next to her and pretended to be interested in a pair of shoes on a bottom shelf while taking pictures up her skirt with his cell phone camera, Suffolk County police said. The aunt heard the shutter go off, snatched the phone from his hand and cried out for security guards, who held him, police said. “It’s pretty shocking,” Detective Sgt. John Kempf said. “This is a young girl, and she looks her age.” The arrested man was charged with unlawful surveillance, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. He could face up to four years in prison if convicted of the felony. Police were searching the cell phone for other upskirt pictures. They said they believed the man was taking the pictures for kicks, not selling them or showing them on the Internet.
— Associated Press
Child Catches Thumb In Macy’s Escalator
A 2-year-old boy from Mississippi caught his thumb in an escalator at Macy’s during the Christmas shopping rush and had to undergo surgery, police said. Michael Gratereaux, from Pascagoula, Miss., stuck his left thumb in the escalator as he rode up inside the department store’s flagship location in midtown Manhattan on Sunday afternoon, police said. Officials at Bellevue Hospital performed surgery Sunday night on the boy’s “severely injured” thumb; the boy was in stable condition at the hospital yesterday.
— Associated Press
CITYWIDE
Second Woman Dies After Brooklyn Fire
A second woman has died in a Brooklyn apartment fire that authorities say was started by a toddler playing with matches. Carol Campbell, 45, died Sunday at Jacobi Medical Center, officials said. She had been living in the same apartment building with Sandra Stephens, 45, who was killed in the late Friday night blaze. Her 2-year-old son, Kyle, remained in the burn unit yesterday at Staten Island University Hospital, officials said. Authorities believe Kyle set fire to a mattress about 11:40 p.m. Friday. Other family members tried to drag the burning mattress out of the apartment but it became stuck. Kyle’s 14-year-old brother broke his ankle while fleeing from the fire, while an 8-year-old sister escaped unhurt.
— Associated Press
Missing Man Found Dead Under Bridge
A man recently reported missing by relatives was found dead in a car floating in a river on Sunday, police said. Chen Chang, 75, of Norwood, N.J., was found shortly before 10 a.m. in the East River in a sedan with one front tire missing. A member of a nearby private yacht club said he spotted the top of the car bobbing under the Throgs Neck Bridge, which connects the Bronx and Queens. Chang’s family had reported him missing on Friday after he left home to go shopping and never returned. Police were investigating how Chang died but said they didn’t suspect foul play. They said it was possible Chang hit something while driving because his car’s missing tire was found on a street near the Bronx yacht club.
— Associated Press
Rockefeller Skating Rink Turns 70
The Rockefeller Center ice skating rink, which sits next to the famous Christmas tree in Midtown Manhattan, opened on December 25, 1936, as the premiere artificial outdoor skating pond built in the city, operator Patina Restaurant Group said. The rink opens each October for the winter skating season, handling more than 250,000 ice skaters each year.
— Associated Press
STATEWIDE
Lack of Snow Hurting Winter Businesses
The lack of snow in upstate New York has limited winter recreational activities and hurt businesses in the region that are dependent on winter weather. The town of Webb, which boasts some of the busiest snowmobile trails in the state, is keeping an eye on the forecast. “I’m optimistic that we will get more snow here soon,” Webb publicity director, Bruce Condie, said. “Every weekend we go without snow, it’s going to be hurting somebody.” But a storm system moving into upstate New York yesterday was expected to bring just colder temperatures and rain, which will likely fall as snow only in the higher elevations of the Adirondacks, according to the National Weather Service. A string of recent warm winters has already caused a decline in snowmobiling in the state, vice president of the Oneida County Area Snowmobile Association, Jim Rolf, said. Numbers have dwindled by almost 10 percent during the past three years, he said.
— Associated Press