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      N.Y.P.D. Often Ignores Parking-Permit Abuse, Report Says

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      Failing to ticket illegally parked cars with officially issued permits is “a form of corruption that erodes the public trust,” the Department of Investigation said.The New York Police Department routinely fails to ticket illegally parked cars that have city-issued parking permits, especially near precinct houses, and residents’ complaints about permit abuse rarely result in summonses, according to a report issued on Wednesday.The report, by the city’s Department of Investigation, confirmed what many New Yorkers know firsthand: that tens of thousands of people with city-issued permits, many of them police officers, can typically park anywhere they like with little fear of consequences.In a city where street parking is at a premium and a space in a garage for even a short period can be costly, the failure to crack down on the misuse of city-issued permits, the report said, is “a form of corruption that erodes the public trust in municipal government.”“Parking permit abuse obstructs streets and sidewalks, creating potentially dangerous conditions for pedestrians and motorists alike,” Jocelyn E. Strauber, the Department of Investigation commissioner, said in a statement. “And a lack of enforcement of parking laws with respect to permit-holders sends a message of special treatment.”The report included about 11 recommendations for tackling the problem, including developing a uniform permit across agencies; conducting annual audits of active permits to determine whether they should be revoked; and scrapping “self-enforcement zones” near precincts.The Police Department, the report said, “has no written policies or procedures regarding the self-enforcement zones, and the rate of enforcement of parking laws within those zones was significantly lower than outside of those zones.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Man Charged With Killing Officer Was Seen With Gun Beforehand, D.A. Says

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      Another officer patrolling Far Rockaway said he noticed Guy Rivera carrying a gun before he fatally shot Detective Jonathan Diller, according to the authorities.A police officer saw the man accused of killing Detective Jonathan Diller carrying what appeared to be a gun before the confrontation that led to the fatal shooting last week, according to new details released by the Queens district attorney.The officer, who was on patrol in the Far Rockaway section of Queens and has not been identified by the authorities, noticed that the man, Guy Rivera, had the gun in the front pocket of his sweatshirt, the district attorney, Melinda Katz, said in an indictment on Monday.After Mr. Rivera stepped into the passenger side of a car, Detective Diller, who was promoted posthumously, and other officers approached the vehicle, prosecutors said. They asked Mr. Rivera several times to roll down his window before they managed to get the car door open, according to the indictment.Mr. Rivera then took out the gun and shot Detective Diller in the stomach at almost point-blank range, Ms. Katz said in a statement. Mr. Rivera has been charged with first-degree murder.The details provide a possible new explanation for why the officers went up to the vehicle. Officials had previously said that the officers had approached Mr. Rivera and the driver, Lindy Jones, because they were illegally parked at a bus stop.Mr. Rivera, 34, was also charged with attempted murder for attempting to fire his gun at another police officer after shooting Detective Diller.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Police Fatally Shoot Queens Man Who Brandished Scissors, Officials Say

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      The victim’s brother contradicted aspects of the police account of the shooting and said his mother had been restraining her son when officers fired their guns.A 19-year-old man who was in mental distress and called 911 seeking help was fatally shot by the police in his Queens home on Wednesday after, officials said, he threatened officers with a pair of scissors and they opened fire.But the man’s brother, who witnessed the shooting, contradicted aspects of the police account of events, saying his mother was restraining her son when he was shot and insisting that the officers had not needed to fire their guns.The man, Win Rozario, was declared dead shortly after the shooting, which occurred around 1:45 p.m. in his family’s second-floor apartment on 103rd Street in Ozone Park, police officials said.John Chell, the Police Department’s chief of patrol, said at a news conference that the shooting took place after two officers answering a 911 call about a person in mental distress went to the apartment, where the situation became “quite hectic, chaotic and dangerous right away.” The police believe Mr. Rozario placed the 911 call, Chief Chell said.When the officers tried to take Mr. Rozario into custody, he pulled the scissors out of a drawer and “came toward” the officers, the chief said. Both officers fired their Tasers at Mr. Rozario and appeared to have him subdued, Chief Chell said.“But a mother, being a mother, came to the aid of her son to help him, but in doing so she accidentally knocked the Tasers out of his body,” the chief said. At that point, Mr. Rozario picked up the scissors and came at the officers again, the chief said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Subway Death in NYC Gives Insight Into the City’s Challenges

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      The man charged with shoving a man from a subway platform had a violent history, according to officials. The man who died was recovering from his own troubled past, his family said.Before the paths of Jason Volz and Carlton McPherson collided in a terrible moment on a Harlem subway platform on Monday, their lives had seemed to be heading in opposite directions.Mr. McPherson had been hospitalized at least half a dozen times since last year for mental health treatment, according to someone who has seen some of his medical records. A neighbor in the Bronx said he sometimes slept in a hallway closet in his grandmother’s building because she would not let him into her apartment. Last October, a man whom prosecutors believe to be Mr. McPherson — he had the same name and birth year — was charged with beating a Brooklyn homeless shelter employee with a cane.Mr. Volz, 54, was recovering from addiction and had also endured homelessness, but had gotten sober two years ago and had just moved into a new apartment, his ex-wife said.On Monday night, the police say, Mr. McPherson, 24, walked up to Mr. Volz on the uptown platform of the 125th Street station on Lexington Avenue and shoved him in front of an oncoming No. 4 train.Responding police officers, who had been on another part of the platform, found him lifeless beneath the train. His death was a recurrence of the ultimate New York City nightmare, and another example of the difficulty of preventing violence on the subway despite years of efforts by state and city authorities to keep people struggling with severe mental illness out of the transit system.Mayor Eric Adams, who has watched crime in the subway largely defy his attempts to rein it in, sounded a note of defeat on Tuesday, acknowledging that the presence of police officers had not been enough to stop Monday’s attack.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Police Officer Is Killed During a Traffic Stop in Queens

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      The authorities arrived in the Far Rockaway neighborhood at about 6 p.m. and found the police officer and a man wounded by gunfire.A police officer died on Monday after being shot during a traffic stop in Queens, the police and city officials said.The suspected gunman, who was also wounded, was the first to fire his gun during the evening encounter in Far Rockaway, striking the officer, Jonathan Diller, in the torso below his protective vest, Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban said at a news conference at Jamaica Hospital, where Officer Diller was taken.The officer’s partner returned fire, striking the man, who was also taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he is being treated for his injuries, officials said at the news conference. “This is a devastating moment,” said Mayor Eric Adams, who also spoke at the news conference. “We have to bury another cop,” he added. Officer Diller joined the Police Department in February 2021, according to city records. He has been recognized three times for “excellent police duty.”In a social media post, Commissioner Caban said Officer Diller and his wife had a young child.“We struggle to find the words to express the tragedy of losing one of our own,” the commissioner wrote.Police officials said the officer approached the car in Far Rockaway because it had been illegally parked. Dakota Santiago for The New York TimesOfficials did not identify the suspect or the second person who was in the vehicle. It was unclear on Monday whether the driver or the passenger had shot Officer Diller, but the driver was arrested on a gun charge last year, police officials said. The police said the episode had begun shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, when Officer Diller and his partner from the Police Department’s community response team approached the car because it was illegally parked at a bus stop on Mott Avenue. Officer Diller asked the suspect several times to get out of the car, said Joseph Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, but the suspect refused, pointed a gun at the officer and fired.Officers in the area heard the shots and sprinted toward the scene, according to security footage from a Mott Avenue deli about two blocks away. Jummai Ezedebego, 57, who was nearby at the Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue subway station, also heard the gunfire and watched as other passengers scattered and helicopters whirred overhead. “Everybody was running and the police started coming,” Ms. Ezedebego said. Later that night, officers put yellow police tape around a gray S.U.V. parked on Mott Avenue. Shards of glass littered the sidewalk, and the front passenger door window appeared to have been pierced by a bullet. Before Monday, the two most recent New York police officers killed in the line of duty were Wilbert Mora and his partner, Jason Rivera. The officers were gunned down in January 2022 as they answered a domestic disturbance call in Harlem.“We should never be here,” Commissioner Caban said at the news conference. “And we’re here far too many times,” he added. Dakota Santiago More

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      Police in Brooklyn Fatally Shoot Man Who Chased and Shot at a Mugger

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      Four police officers were responding to reports of gunshots in East Flatbush when they saw the man, 20, chasing another man and a woman, the authorities said.Police officers in Brooklyn shot and killed a 20-year-old man on Monday who had been shooting at a mugger running off with his wallet, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.The man, Nathan Scott, was firing at a fleeing man and woman after his wallet was stolen, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing a continuing investigation.The man who stole Mr. Scott’s wallet later confessed to the theft, one of the officials said. Mr. Scott gave chase for several blocks after he was robbed, according to an official.The fatal shooting occurred after four officers in an unmarked car, responding to calls of gunshots around 6 p.m. in East Flatbush, came across the foot chase, John Chell, the Police Department’s chief of patrol, said at a news conference on Monday.The officers saw the man in pursuit of the couple, “firing numerous rounds trying to shoot them,” he said.Mr. Scott was shot several times by the officers and was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died, the authorities said. The shooting is under investigation by the Police Department’s Force Investigation Division, which examines officers’ use of deadly force, to determine whether the officers followed proper protocol.No one has been charged in the incident, the police said. The couple chased by Mr. Scott were not harmed and their names have not been released. None of the officers were shot, the police said. A gun was recovered at the scene, according to Chief Chell. A 60-year-old man was also shot twice on the street, he said, but it was unclear by whom.In a porch security-camera video shared on social media and in news reports, two people can be seen running on a sidewalk, while gunshots can be heard in the background and someone yells, “hey, hey, stop, stop.” Shortly after, a man runs into the frame as a gray sedan stops and several shots are fired. The man, possibly Mr. Scott, then collapses.Four officers can be seen exiting the car, shooting over a dozen times in the man’s direction. While approaching the man, officers yell at him not to move while he is on the ground, and more officers soon arrive at the scene.The uniformed officers were assigned to the Brooklyn South community response team and were helping officers in the 67th Precinct, Chief Chell said.Chelsia Rose Marcius More

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      Public Workers Joined Ring That Stole IDs of Homeless People, D.A. Says

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      Eighteen people, including nine New York City public employees, were charged with joining a conspiracy that made ghost guns and defrauded a state Covid relief program.Eighteen people, including nine public employees, engaged in a broad criminal conspiracy that included the manufacture of ghost guns, burglary and defrauding a state pandemic relief program, according to four indictments filed Thursday by the Manhattan district attorney.The defendants include five employees of New York City’s Department of Homeless Services, a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, a worker for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, an employee of the New York City Housing Authority and a school safety police officer.The Homeless Services workers were involved in a scheme to steal the personal information of homeless people to file for fraudulent benefits, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said.“This kind of conduct by our public servants is unacceptable and, we allege, criminal,” Mr. Bragg said at a news conference on Thursday.The investigation began in 2022 with suspicions that two people were using 3-D printers to manufacture ghost guns — untraceable firearms that can be assembled at home — in an apartment in the East Village. Evidence uncovered after the execution of a search warrant confirmed that Craig Freeman, 56, and another defendant had used eBay and Amazon to purchase machines and materials to build illegal guns in their homes. Both were employees of the Barbara Kleiman homeless shelter in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn.In the summer of 2022, Mr. Freeman got a text message from a co-defendant saying, “We can make some serious bank.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A Plush Dog, Samurai Sword and 42,439 Guns: Inside an N.Y.P.D. Basement

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      A Plush Dog, Samurai Sword and 42,439 Guns: Inside an N.Y.P.D. BasementIn the office of the Manhattan Property Clerk, evidence and lost items arrive by the tens of thousands. A small band of officers and civilians has to manage never-ending pressure.Feb. 14, 2024Charmain Carryl moved with purpose through the dim, cavernous room.She turned down a shadowy aisle of rolling library stacks and scanned the shelves until her eyes landed on the aim of her pursuit: a samurai sword.The sheathed blade, an identification tag tied to its golden hilt, is just one oddity kept in the basement of New York Police Department headquarters.The office of the Manhattan Property Clerk, as it is known, is a subterranean repository for lost objects and the tangible aftermath of crime and misadventure. Ms. Carryl has been a police evidence and property specialist there for more than a decade. Thousands of people walk through One Police Plaza each day not knowing an archive that allows the criminal justice system to run is just one story below their feet.Every piece of evidence stored in the basement resides in its own plastic bag, never to be opened while underground.Almost every item that passes through the borough’s 22 precincts must go to the basement to be numbered and cataloged to be held as evidence for a trial or wait for its rightful owner. Some objects come from crime scenes. Others were turned in after they were left behind on a park bench or a sidewalk.Ms. Carryl supervises the meticulous bookkeeping. She keeps track of the expected — guns, drugs, samples of DNA — and the bizarre: a gold dental grill, a half-drunk bottle of Smirnoff and a weathered brown suitcase. It is stuffed with muskets.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More