Manhattan
Authorities are hunting for a man wanted in a failed a Midtown jewelry store stickup after his BB gun fell apart. The suspect walked into Rafaello and Co. Jewelry on West 47th Street at around 4 p.m. Sunday and asked two workers, a 61-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman, to see a chain locked in a display case, cops said. When the man left to fetch a key, the thief put a pistol to the woman’s head and demanded she retrieve the chains, cops said. When she screamed, her co-worker rushed back and struggled to grab the gun. He was unable to wrest it away, but when the thief stepped back to fire, it fell to pieces in his hand, authorities said. The crook bolted east on 47th Street. He is tall, thin, in his early 20s, and wore a black jacket, black pants and a black baseball cap.
The Bronx
Police on Monday released surveillance video of a band of teens (inset) who allegedly beat two men in a robbery attempt on a Morris Heights street. The victims, ages 18 and 20, were at West Tremont and University avenues at around 7:15 p.m. July 22, when the seven teens attacked them and tried to remove valuables from their pockets, cops said. The attackers, all 17 or 18 years old, fled north on University.
A livery cab driver was robbed by a knife-wielding man he picked up in Wakefield, authorities said Monday. The driver picked up the thief at East 241st Street and White Plains Road at around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday. On the way to the requested destination, the passenger pulled out a knife and demanded money. The driver handed over $85.
Brooklyn
A thief burglarized two Brighton Beach restaurants, authorities said. The crook broke into the Brick Oven Bakery on Brighton Beach Boulevard through a side door on the night of July 27 and removed about $200 from the register. On Aug. 1, he entered Gulluoglu on Brighton Beach Boulevard through a window and made off with about $300. The thief is a white man in his early 40s.
A suspect in the fatal beating of a man in Crown Heights has been arrested, police said Monday. Julius Howard, 50, and Justin Thomas, 27, were intoxicated when they squared off at Nostrand and Prospect avenues at around 10:30 a.m. May 19, police said. Thomas punched Howard in the face, causing him to stumble backward and hit his head on the pavement, cops said. Howard was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he died 10 days later. Thomas has been charged with criminally negligent homicide.
A corpulent criminal sprayed two straphangers in the face with a chemical substance during an argument at a Downtown Brooklyn subway station, police said. The man fought with the victims, a 48-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman, in the elevator of the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station at around 4 p.m. July 19, cops said. The thug followed them to the mezzanine area of the Pacific Street station off the R line and sprayed them before running off, police said. The victims were treated at Brooklyn Hospital for pain in their eyes. The 6-foot, 300-pound suspect wore a green and black T-shirt, a brown jacket, black jeans and black sneakers.
Cops are looking for two men and a woman who allegedly stabbed and robbed a motorist inside his parked car in East New York. The two men approached the 44-year-old victim on Snediker Avenue near Stanley Avenue at around 10 p.m. Aug. 2, and demanded his property, cops said. When the victim refused, one of the men stabbed him in the leg as the woman took the victim’s cellphone from the car, cops said. Two 22-year-old men and the 25-year-old woman fled north on Snediker.