N.Y.P.D. Carl Knox

Carl Knox, the 47-year-old who allegedly stabbed a man to death on East Fifth Street last week, turned himself in to police and is in custody, Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann announced at last night’s meeting of the Ninth Precinct Community Council.

Mr. Knox, who turned himself in on Sunday at the 44th Precinct near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, faces a charge of murder in the second degree. Inspector Cappelmann shared a few additional details about the dispute that led to the death of 31-year-old Corey Capers. Mr. Knox, who was staying at 737 East Fifth Street in the Lower East Side II houses, got in a dispute with the goddaughter of his girlfriend over the fact that she was watching television. The argument escalated to the point that Mr. Knox began abusing his girlfriend, and the goddaughter alerted a group outside of the building. The group then chased Mr. Knox to scaffolding in the front of 709 East Fifth Street, where he allegedly stabbed Mr. Capers.
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Daniel Maurer Scene of Monday’s shooting.

Tonight is the last meeting of the Ninth Precinct Community Council this summer, and one subject is sure to come up: the recent uptick in crime in the East Village.

According to the latest crime statistics compiled by the Police Department, felony assaults have increased by 33 percent in the last 28 days in comparison with the same period last year. Robberies are up 29 percent when comparing the same time frames.

In the year to date, overall crime is up by roughly 3 percent when compared to 2011, according to statistics.

The spike comes amid recent high-profile incidents in the neighborhood, including the first homicide of the year, as well as a stabbing in East River Park. Read more…

A woman was shot at the Jacob Riis Houses early this morning, the police said.

The victim was shot in the thigh shortly after midnight, according to the police. Officers taped off an area at the end of East Sixth Street and were seen examining evidence in the street as well as going in and out of Building 16 of the Riis Houses, at the northeast corner of East Sixth Street and FDR Drive.

The police could not provide the victim’s age or description but said she was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Information about the shooter’s identity was not immediately available.

The incident comes a week after a man was stabbed to death on East Fifth Street and two weeks after another stabbing victim was found at East Fourth Street. In his Crime Scene column on Saturday, Mike Wilson of The Times reported that Carl Knox, the suspect in last weekend’s stabbing, was still at large as of Friday.

Melvin Felix Corey Capers’s nephew Freezy at the memorial earlier today.

Earlier today, friends and family gathered to remember Corey Capers, a 31-year-old resident of Baruch Houses who was fatally stabbed early Saturday morning. They stood, some weeping, at a memorial full of loving messages set up paces away from where his body was found with a knife wound in the chest, under scaffolding on East Fifth Street, between Avenues C and D.

“I remember him always being a strong person, a laughing person,” said Jonathan Winston, the victim’s brother. “I’m really hurt, but at the end of the day, my little brother, he was a soldier. He went out like a soldier. He went out like a man, and I’m proud of him and I will always be proud of him.”

“I am too,” said Denise Alexander, the victim’s older sister. “You’re my hero, Corey Capers.” Read more…

N.Y.P.D. Carl Knox.

The police have named a suspect in a stabbing that occurred early Saturday morning.

Carl “Abdul Hakim” Knox, 47, is wanted for stabbing Corey Capers, a 31-year-old resident of the Baruch Houses. Around 3 a.m. Saturday, Mr. Capers was found with a knife wound to the chest outside of Mr. Knox’s residence at 737 East Fifth Street, between Avenues C and D, the police said. He was declared dead on arrival at Beth Israel hospital.

Police sources told The Daily News that Mr. Capers was killed as he tried to prevent Mr. Knox from beating his girlfriend (the victim’s aunt, according to The Post). Mr. Capers had been at a barbecue nearby, per CBS New York.

As Alphabet City copes with its second stabbing in a week, many are still talking about a chaotic incident last weekend that is said to have increased tension between residents and the police.

A fight involving a father, his son, and a police officer last Saturday grew into a melee that took over Avenue D and spilled into a police station house, said residents of the neighborhood. Videos obtained by The Local offer a glimpse into the clamorous street scene.

The Local spoke with several people living in the Jacob Riis Houses or nearby who said they had heard that a 14-year-old boy and his father were stuck in the head by a police officer. Ashley Serrano, another 14-year-old who was involved in the tussle, said that the father’s face was bruised and cut. “They made his whole face bleed,” she said.

“It was a hot night out there,” said Lieutenant Steve Nusser, one of the officers of Police Service Area 4 who responded to the incident. “There was a fight between a couple people, a crowd of people came over, and the cops I’m sure did something to halt that action, and it escalated from there,” he said. “When the crowd surged, some people came to the PSA [station house] and we had to control the crowd. Some were out of order.” Read more…

A man was stabbed to death on East Fifth Street early this morning, the police said.

The police said that at 3 a.m., they responded to a report of a 30-year-old man stabbed in the chest in front of 737 East Fifth Street, between Avenues C and D.

The victim, who could not be identified as his family had not yet been notified, was found unconscious and was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel hospital; there have been no arrests in the ongoing homicide investigation, the police said.

Update | 6:30 p.m. The victim has now been identified as Corey Capers, a 31-year-old resident of the Baruch Houses, the police said.

Daniel Maurer

A woman was attacked with a hammer outside of the Catholic Worker’s Maryhouse at 55 East Third Street this morning, a resident of the facility said.

Amy Nee, who has lived and worked at the Maryhouse for three months, said she didn’t witness the attack, which occurred shortly after 7 a.m., but detectives told her about it as the victim waited in an ambulance. She said the woman, whose first name was Katie and whose last name she did not know, often came to the Maryhouse for lunches and showers. A police representative was unable to confirm the incident for The Local, but DNA Info reported that the victim, 39, was struck in the head and taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition.

Maryhouse, which houses mostly women and is run in a communal fashion by volunteers committed to poverty, was opened in the 1970s by Catholic anarchist Dorothy Day. As The Local has reported, it has served as a refuge for members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, among others in need of food and shelter. Read more…

Melvin Felix The crime scene at Union Square East.

A man was slashed with a razor blade in Union Square this afternoon by an attacker who fled the scene, the police and witnesses said.

The police said that around 2:30 p.m., across from Beth Israel’s Phillips Ambulatory Care Center at Union Square East near 15th Street, a 37-year-old man was slashed in the face by a man who wore a white t-shirt and is said to be around five-foot-eight and 170 pounds.

Melvin Felix Robin Stewart was spotted by the victim’s blood.

Robin Stewart said she saw the alleged attacker approach her acquaintance, whom she named only as Mr. P, from behind and then use a razor blade to stab him in his head and neck. The slashing, she said, was in retaliation for an altercation between the two men yesterday in the same area.

Ms. Stewart described the victim as “a good hard-working man who’s in between jobs,” and the incident as “a senseless act of brutality.”

Tyrone Curry, another witness, said, “It cut him so deep and hard that the blade broke.” Shortly after the attack, the blade lay on the ground in an area cordoned off by police tape. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

Someone made a failed attempt to rob the Emigrant Savings Bank at 105 Second Avenue around 45 minutes ago, a police officer and bank employee confirmed. The pair would only add that the suspect did not flash a weapon. Just last Wednesday a man robbed the HSBC three blocks to the north.

Stephen Rex Brown The sidewalk outside Fine Fare was a bloody mess Sunday morning.

Wondering why there was pool of blood outside the Fine Fare on Avenue C Sunday morning? Here’s your answer: One of the men injured during Saturday night’s stabbing in East River Park was arrested outside of the grocery store.

The neighborhood’s top police officer, Deputy Inspector John Cappelmann (he was promoted from captain last week) confirmed the sequence of events, saying that the perp fled the park and was found at Avenue C and East Fourth Street. Initially, the police reported that only the suspect found at Fine Fare was arrested, but Inspector Cappelmann revealed that the 59-year-old “victim” ended up in handcuffs, as well.

“It was two people who are acquaintances. They got in a dispute in the park, wound up assaulting each other and both were charged,” Inspector Cappelmann said.

Meanwhile the blood, which was a hot topic of discussion on EV Grieve and Gothamist, has washed away in the rain.

A man was stabbed in a playground in East River Park last night, the police said.

The 59-year-old was near FDR Drive and East Eighth Street at around 8:30 p.m. when he got in a dispute with another man. The argument escalated, and the victim was stabbed in the torso.

Police charged Conrado Speck, 50, with assault with a weapon and criminal possession of a weapon. The victim is expected to survive.

Stephen Rex Brown

New York Police Department The suspect.

The police are searching for a man who allegedly robbed the HSBC at Second Avenue and East Ninth Street around 45 minutes ago.

An officer at the scene provided The Local with a surveillance image of the suspect, who is seen wearing a black cap and a long-sleeved white shirt. The investigation had just gotten underway, but the police officer said that the suspect passed a note demanding cash, did not show a weapon, and escaped with under $200.

Stephen Rex Brown The scene of a similar incident last summer.

Someone shot a 19-year-old in the back with a BB gun at around 7 p.m. near the Campos Plaza houses, the police said.

The teenager was on East 12th Street between Avenues B and C when he was hit, according to the police. He was taken to Beth Israel Hospital in stable condition and no arrests have been made, according to a police spokesman.

The incident comes less than a week after a pair of teenagers were arrested for spraying a corner near PS 2 in the Lower East Side with BBs. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Capt. John Cappelmann

At last night’s meeting of the Ninth Precinct Community Council, Capt. John Cappelmann shared the latest on the early-morning shooting on May 12. “The guy didn’t wait for police,” Capt. Cappelmann said of the 29-year-old who took himself to Bellevue Hospital after being shot in the lower right leg. “Usually that means they were up to no good in the first place.”

He added that the victim is “no surprise. He’s known to us very well.” Surveillance cameras captured people fleeing the scene following the shooting, and police officers are dedicating manpower to preventing retaliation for the incident.

While that investigation is ongoing, Capt. Cappelmann singled out a few notable collars and said that crime in the neighborhood has decreased overall by 13 percent in comparison with the same 28-day period last year. Here’s a roundup of recent arrests and other items of note. Read more…

Suzanne Rozdeba A police car outside of the Wald Houses after gunshots back in January.

A man walked into Bellevue Hospital with a gunshot wound to his right leg around 1 a.m. this morning, the police said. The victim refused to provide a description of the person who shot him in the vicinity of Avenue D and East Sixth Street, due to what a police spokesperson said was his uncooperative nature.

In January, gunshots were heard in the same area near the Lillian Wald Houses, a month after a 19-year-old was shot in the leg further up Avenue D, in the courtyard of Campos Plaza II.

Know anything else? E-mail us.

Update | May 13, 7:45 p.m. Captain John Cappelmann said the shooting was “the result of an unknown dispute. We don’t have a solid motive at this point.”
Asked whether it was gang-related, he said, “That’s one angle that we’re looking at.”

A jury convicted a 35-year-old electrician from Queens today of punching a woman in the face and leaving her in a coma following a dispute over a parking space on East 14th Street.

Oscar Fuller could face up to a year in prison for the brutal blow on Feb. 25 of last year, but he avoided the more serious charge of felony assault. The verdict hinged on the perception that the victim, Lana Rosas, was knocked into a week-long coma as a result of her head striking the pavement — not the punch to the face, according to The New York Post.

“This was a brutal and unjustified act of rage,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in a statement. “That a petty argument over a parking space could escalate into physical violence is shameful.” Read more…

Daniel Maurer The flyer for the stolen cycle.

Remember the guy who recovered his stolen bike after posting flyers around the neighborhood? Rich Minkoff is hoping he’ll be so lucky. The Greenpoint resident’s custom-built bike, estimated to be worth $2,000, disappeared from Avenue A last week, and now he has papered the area in an effort to get it back.

Mr. Minkoff said that around 10:30 a.m. Thursday, he met his girlfriend, who lives in Stuyvesant Town, at Table 12, the coffee shop at Avenue A and 12th Street. He rested his bike against a table outside of the café and walked in to fetch his girlfriend. Within two minutes, it was gone. Read more…

New York Police Department The suspect

On the same day that a man is alleged to have taken a photo up a woman’s skirt as their train pulled into Union Square, another man is said to have been photographed inappropriately touching himself on his way to the same station.

The police said that on April 18, a man thought to be in his early twenties boarded an L train at Montrose Avenue and, sometime before deboarding at the Union Square station, fondled himself while staring at a 34-year-old woman. The victim snapped a photo of the man and showed it to police officers.

The suspect, who is thought to be around 6-foot-tall and 175 pounds, is wanted for public lewdness.