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.
The police say this is the gun that Luis Martinez fired at two police officers early this morning. N.Y.P.D.If you were wondering why those helicopters were hovering around the neighborhood early this morning here’s your answer: two police officers narrowly avoided being shot while chasing a man down Columbia Street into the Baruch Houses.
The police said that 25-year-old Luis Martinez opened fire on Officers Thomas Richards and Thomas Dunne at around 1:45 a.m. as the pair approached him on Columbia Street between Delancey and Rivington Streets. One of the shots struck Officer Richards’s spare ammunition magazine holstered to his gun belt, just missing his abdomen.
“It was a very close call for Officer Richards,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement. “The magazine may have well saved his life.” Read more…
Joel Raskin Authorities are looking for two men who are believed to be involved in a robbery at the Baruch Houses, just below Houston Street. A police spokesman said that two men robbed a 75-year-old Hispanic male at gunpoint around 10:30 p.m. on Monday at 105 Baruch Drive. “The victim states that he was robbed and made to give up money,” the spokesman said. The suspects were described as about 25 years old and about 5-foot-11. This isn’t the only crime involving a septuagenarian victim in recent weeks. A 18-year-old male was arrested last week and charged with grand larceny after police say he snatched the purse of a 78-year-old woman in a wheelchair. The purse contained $15 and medication.
