Daniel Maurer Campos Plaza.

Narcotics officers arrested nine people inside an apartment in Campos Plaza that contained a loaded 9-millimeter, cocaine, marijuana, shotgun shells and scales.

A police spokesman said that the investigators served the warrant at an apartment at 641 East 13th Street around 5 p.m. on Sunday following a longterm investigation. Three men caught there face charges of criminal possession of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and criminally using drug paraphernalia. They are Andrew Hudson, 20, Jose Perez, 21, and Demetrius Blas, 17. The trio all have criminal records, according to a criminal complaint. The others busted in the apartment were released. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Capt. John Cappelmann

Last night’s meeting of the Ninth Precinct Community Council featured several interesting details regarding recent crime in the neighborhood. Here’s a roundup, and check back later for more detailed posts about other recent arrests.

Capt. John Cappelmann, the new commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, reported that four new officers started patrolling the neighborhood on Monday, as he promised in January. Four to six more officers should start in the next couple of weeks, some of whom will focus on quality of life issues. “It’s a tremendous boost for us in personnel numbers,” Capt. Cappelmann said. Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown Investigators outside of the HSBC.

A robber flashed a gun and stole an undetermined amount of cash from the HSBC at Broadway and East Ninth Street at around 9 a.m. this morning.

A police spokesman said the suspect, a white man in his 40s carrying a blue knapsack, was last seen running west on East Eighth Street.

At 10:30 a.m. investigators were still mingling outside of the bank, which was closed.

Daniel Maurer The Starbucks at Astor Place, hours
before the attack.

Last night’s riotous atmosphere resulted in a sergeant and lieutenant suffering minor injuries while scuffling with anarchist protesters at the Astor Place Starbucks, the police said.

According to police, around 25 people tried smashing the windows of the cafe with eight-foot long steel pipes at around 8:45 p.m. after attending the Anarchist book fair earlier in the day. “Patrons fearing that they would be hit by flying glass hid under tables,” the police said in a statement. “Several” officers were assaulted with pipes and bottles, the police added.

Eric Marchese, a 24-year-old from Brentwood, N.Y., and Nicholas Thommen, a 30-year-old from Salem, Oregon were arrested at the scene. The former was charged with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct, the latter faces a variety of charges, including inciting to riot, criminal possession of a weapon and assault. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

A man accused of stealing an iPad tangled with police officers at Lafayette and Bleecker Streets earlier today, sending two of them to Bellevue Hospital with cuts to their arms and legs.

The police said that around 3 p.m. today, a 25-year-old woman left her iPad on the counter at 230 Mulberry Street, where it was swiped by a man who entered the store and then fled toward Houston Street. At the Bleecker Street subway station, a police sergeant and a transit officer spotted a man fitting the suspect’s description and carrying an iPad. When they approached him, he took off running, a police representative said. Read more…

Jared Malsin

Some 200 protesters gathered in Union Square yesterday evening to demand justice for Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in February.

City Council Member Letitia James, of Brooklyn, was among those who participated in the rally. Referring to the hooded sweatshirt worn by the 17-year-old the day he died, she told The Local, “Today, all of us are Trayvon Martin, and today this powerful article of clothing is going to be transformed into an instrument for change, and for justice for this young man.”

The hoodie has become a national symbol following the Feb. 26 shooting in Sanford, Fla., inspiring everything from hooded church services to a tribute song by “Hoodie Guthrie.” On March 21 activists including members of the Occupy movement staged a “Million Hoodie March” that stepped off from Union Square. Read more…

Jared Malsin

City Room reports that the police have arrested two men who plastered subway seats with stickers reading “Priority seating for the 1 percent.” Jeffrey Brewer and Aaron Minter, who took NY1 stickering on Wednesday, were apprehended the next day near Union Square and charged with criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments. Meanwhile, The Local spotted this bit of graffiti on Avenue A between Sixth and Seventh Streets – presumably a reference to Occupy Wall Street’s planned May Day demonstrations. A bit much?

Stephen Rex Brown

Three men robbed a jewelry store on the Bowery yesterday but only made it to Bond Street before being arrested. The heist went down at 11:30 a.m. at Raineri Jewelers near Hester Street when the three thieves — one of them armed — barged in and looted several displays, a police spokeswoman said. They fled in a waiting Jaguar but abandoned the ride at Bond Street and Broadway. They were found hiding in Great Jones Alley near Lafayette Street. The police arrested two 23-year-old men from Queens and a 26-year-old from Brooklyn. A fourth suspect is still at large. The Daily News has a photo of one of the suspects.

Here’s the latest installment of “Police And Thieves,” The Local’s regular roundup of crime. What follows are the latest reports from March 26 to April 1, sorted by the type of incident. Plus: Our map of all of crime since Jan. 15.


Stabbings and Slicings

• Four men stabbed a guy twice on March 28. The victim told the police he was walking on East Seventh Street between Avenue A and Avenue B at around 12:30 a.m. when the quartet grabbed him from behind. He managed to fight off the group, continued walking to a relative’s house on Avenue D and realized he’d been stabbed. The victim was treated at Bellevue Hospital and was expected to live.
• A guy sliced a 27-year-old’s face and hand with a box-cutter on March 30. The victim and the suspect were in an apartment on Avenue D near East Fifth Street at around 3 p.m. when the fight broke out. Read more…

Here’s the latest installment of “Police And Thieves,” The Local’s regular roundup of crime. What follows are the latest reports from March 12 to 18, sorted by the type of incident. Plus: Our map of all of crime since Jan. 15.

Trouble on the Trains

Vivienne Gucwa The Astor Place station.

• A thief chucked two sneakers at a man and robbed him on March 12. The 44-year-old victim told the police he was sitting on a bench on the northbound platform in the Astor Place station at around 6 a.m. when a man sat beside him and said, “I’m going to kill you if you don’t give me your money.” After getting what he asked for, the suspect reached into his jacket, pulled out the shoe and threw it at the victim, hitting him in the back. The victim alerted a booth clerk, and re-approached the suspect, who had moved up the platform, only to get a shoe hurled at him again.
• A guy asked a woman for directions in the Second Avenue subway station and then snatched her cellphone on March 17. The 23-year-old victim said that after she gave the suspect directions at around 9:50 p.m., he grabbed her iPhone 4S from her hand. She gave chase but lost the thief on the street.
• After drinking till closing time at Double Down Saloon on March 18, a 27-year-old from Wisconsin passed out on a subway platform. He woke up four hours later and was missing his cellphone as well as the iPhone that he used for browsing the internet. To add insult to injury, when he awoke and tried to report the crime to a booth clerk at the station she wouldn’t help him out. Read more…

The police are on the hunt for a man suspected of a string of four robberies at knife-point, two of which occurred within the span of 20 minutes.

The police said that on March 13 at around 4:30 a.m. the suspect robbed a 41-year-old man at Seventh Avenue and West 12th Street. Less than a half-hour later he struck again at East 14th Street and First Avenue, robbing a 24-year-old man. In both cases the victims handed over their cash and cellphones.

The man is also wanted in connection with two other similar incidents. The first occurred on Feb. 25 at West 26th Street and Broadway. The other March 17 on the platform of the 23rd Street station of the F train. None of the four victims were injured, the police said.

N.Y.P.D. The suspected thief.

As if blind dates aren’t awkward enough. A 20-something man stole a 50-year-old woman’s cell phone and wallet after going on a date with her in the Lower East Side on March 9, the police said.

The victim reportedly arranged a night out with the alleged thief — who may be named Hayden — over the internet. The pair parted ways at the Second Avenue station, and then the victim realized her items were missing. The police described the suspect with corn rows in his hair as roughly six-foot-one and around 165 pounds.

Earlier this week The Local’s crime blotter, “Police and Thieves,” reported two cases of victims taking their dates home for the night, only to be robbed in the morning.

The police say they have arrested an East Village man accused of forcibly touching an 11-year-old girl. Kerry Abrams, 54, allegedly fondled the child at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Gramercy on March 7, then fled the scene. Police were able to retrieve surveillance camera footage of the suspect, who now faces charges of sexual assault.

Here’s the latest installment of “Police And Thieves,” The Local’s regular roundup of crime. What follows are the latest reports from Feb. 28 to March 11, sorted by the type of incident. Plus: Our map of all of crime since Jan. 15.

Assaults

• Two men were bloodied during a brawl with eight others on March 2. The two victims told the police they were throwing down at the corner of Third Avenue and East 12th Street at around 12:30 a.m. when the 24-year-old was stabbed four times and the 27-year-old was sliced across the chest. Both were treated at Bellevue Hospital.
• That same night, another brawl between four guys one block away. The 25- and 26-year-old victims told the police they were in an altercation at around 4:30 a.m. at Third Avenue and East 11th Street. That’s when at least one of the suspects managed to slash the former in the head, and the latter in the hands. Both were treated at Bellevue Hospital. One of the suspects fled on foot, the other took off in a car. A police source said both stabbing incidents involved patrons of Webster Hall.
• A cyclist was slashed in the face for no apparent reason on March 8. The 22-year-old victim said he was riding on the sidewalk on Avenue D near East 10th Street at around 9:30 p.m. when he was cut from behind.
• A pair of drinkers beat up the bartender at Doc Holliday’s on March 11. The 39-year-old victim told the police that he spotted a woman walking out of the bar with a beer at around 1:45 a.m. When he told the woman she could not take the booze on the street she smashed the bottle over his head, cutting his forehead. That’s when another bar-goer joined in the melee and started punching the victim in the head. Police arrested both suspects.

Read more…

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance just announced the indictment of Luis Martinez, the man accused of firing at two police officers in a wild gun battle last last month that culminated in the Baruch Houses. Mr. Martinez is charged with attempted murder in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon. During the melee an officer narrowly avoided being shot in the gut thanks to an extra ammo clip on his belt that deflected the bullet. The violence prompted Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to renew a call for a gun buy-back program in the neighborhood. “A metal gun magazine and its leather pouch was all that stood in the way of a bullet piercing an officer’s abdomen, after he was fired upon by this defendant,” Mr. Vance said in a press release.

Suzanne RozdebaPolice officers at the scene of a bank robbery this morning.

While taking photos for an upcoming story about the loss of parking spaces that will result from N.Y.U.’s proposed expansion (check back soon!), The Local was alerted to a robbery at CitiBank on Laguardia Place near West Third Street.

A police officer at the scene said that at around 9:30 a.m. a white male wearing a black hat, sunglasses and a black jacket flashed a gun at the bank and then fled. A police spokesman did not yet have information regarding whether the suspect escaped with any money.

An hour after the incident officers were still lingering at the scene and barring any customers from entering the bank.

N.Y.P.D. The suspected slashers.

The police are on the hunt for two men who they say sliced two other guys outside of IHOP on March 3.

According to the police, the dispute between the men began at around 6:20 a.m. at the house of pancakes on 14th Street. That’s when things escalated and the 25-year-old and 27-year-old victims were cut with an unknown object.

Both suspects, who are thought to be 20 to 25 years old, then fled the scene.

Daniel MaurerThe crime scene last night.

A portion of East Third Street became a crime scene shortly after 11:30 p.m. last night, after an apparent assault occurred in one of the guest rooms operated by Interfaith Community Services.

The police are not yet able to confirm what happened, but Adi Purusha Das, a director of the organization that feeds the needy near Tompkins Square Park, said that he was told of the incident at 73 East Third Street, between First and Second Avenues, this morning. Read more…

Daniel Maurer

A woman who claims she was subject to an “unlawful and violent arrest” on the sidewalk next to Tompkins Square Park is looking for witnesses to her detention, according to a flyer posted on the door of a building on East 10th Street.

The flyer seeks anyone who might have “witnessed the unlawful and violent arrest of a young Asian woman by two NYPD officers, across the street on the sidewalk next to Tompkins Square Park on late Tuesday night of Jan. 31/ Wednesday morning of Feb. 1 at approximately 1:30 am.”

The Local contacted the woman via a number attached to the flyer, but she declined to make her name or any other details public because of legal concerns related to the alleged incident.

The Police Department said no information about the matter was immediately available.