Tag: Brooklyn
Man gets 41 years for killing babysitter with submachine gun
A Brooklyn judge laid into a man convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old babysitter with a submachine gun, saying she saw no reason to show him mercy before sentencing him to 41 years behind bars Tuesday.
Convicted killer Taariq Stephens — who was named as the shooter by his victim, Shemel Mercurius, with her dying breath — had just finished whining that he didn’t kill the teen when Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Deborah Dowling cut him off.
“All the evidence indicated that it is you,” Dowling snapped. “When you take a life, what do you give in exchange for life? There is nothing to give in return for a life.”
“I am not showing any mercy,” the judge said, adding that Stephens had shown none when he pushed his way into the East Flatbush apartment where Mercurius was babysitting her 3-year-old cousin Josiah and racked the gun three times before firing a single shot through her arm and into her abdomen.
The 16-year-old’s aunt and Josiah’s mother, LaToya Mercurius-Price, said Stephens, 26, had crippled their entire family with the May 2016 shooting.
“The echoes of ‘Mommy, mommy, Shemel has been shot and Josiah is covered in blood’ pierced me with the anguish, pain, hurt, panic, confusion, grief and left me emotionally paralyzed and hyperventilating,” she told the court. “The loss of our precious gem is beyond words.”
The motive for the heinous crime was never clear.
“This defendant will now spend many years behind bars for the callous killing of an innocent teenage girl who was taken from her loved ones far too early, and for undoubtedly traumatizing the toddler she was babysitting,” Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “Nothing can bring Shemel back to her devastated family.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/01/16/man-gets-25-years-for-killing-babysitter-with-submachine-gun/
Principal fired for trying to smuggle heroin into prison
A once-respected Brooklyn principal has lost a bid to keep her job after admitting she tried to smuggle heroin and other drugs into an upstate prison, The Post has learned.
Sadie Silver, a rising star at PS 28 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, was busted in July 2014 — but continued to collect her city salary, which was $138,000 last year, until March this year.
Silver and a boyfriend were arrested on charges of drug possession, bringing contraband into a prison, and endangering the welfare of a child. Silver brought her daughter to Coxsackie Correctional Facility.
She and her boyfriend were caught with bags of heroin and suboxone, authorities said. They allegedly tried to sneak the drugs to Silver’s son, who was doing time on weapons charges.
Two years later, in July 2016, she pleaded guilty to introducing contraband into a prison, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to three years’ probation.
Defended in a three-day hearing as a “brilliant educator” by the city principals’ union, Silver said she acted because her incarcerated son needed money to pay off a debt.
Silver begged for “a second chance,” but hearing officer Joel Douglas terminated her on Feb. 28.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/10/07/principal-fired-for-trying-to-smuggle-heroin-into-prison/
Brooklyn day care worker beats her 4-year-old son to death with stick for dropping egg on floor
Strangers trust Zarah Coombs to care for their children — never suspecting that the Brooklyn day care worker could be capable of savagely killing her own son.
An enraged Coombs beat her 4-year-old son Zamair to death with a broomstick after the preschooler accidentally broke an egg on the floor of their Brooklyn basement apartment, sources said.
Coombs — who worked in a family-owned Bushwick day care center — waited 20 minutes with the dying boy stashed inside a water-filled plastic storage bin before finally calling 911 for help, according to a source. The 26-year-old Coombs confessed to the Wednesday night beating and was charged with murder. She was led away in handcuffs as tears rolled down her face.But neighbor Ray Moore, 18, said the cold-blooded Coombs showed no such remorse as medics tried to save her son’s life
“She was just standing there like she just don’t care,” said Moore, who lives one floor up from the murder suspect in Brownsville. “I know if it was me, my mother would’ve been in the ambulance.
“That’s when you know something wasn’t right.”
Coombs was later placed on suicide watch. The brutal killing occurred while Coombs was home alone with Zamair and two younger kids, waiting for her boyfriend to return from buying marijuana, sources said.
When the egg slipped from the small child’s hands, the mom lost her mind, grabbed the broomstick and beat the helpless little boy until he fell silent, sources said.
She then put the unconscious Zamair in the large bin inside the apartment bathroom, according to sources.
Coombs — raised in a family of 15 kids and the mother of four children — only summoned help when her live-in boyfriend, Jamari Richardson, returned home shortly before 9 p.m., cops said.
When cops arrived, they found the battered Zamair unable to breathe and foaming at the mouth, according to police and a relative. He was pronounced dead about five hours later at Brookdale University Hospital.
Cops said the boy had cuts, bruises and abrasions on his neck and body. The medical examiner, in ruling the case a homicide, found the cause of death was multiple blunt-impact injuries.
The city Department of Investigation immediately announced plans for a probe into the little boy’s death and whether the city Administration for Children’s Services played any role.
Hours after Zamair died, an Investigation Department summary report ripped ACS for botching the case of another Brooklyn boy, 3-year-old Jaden Jordan, who was beaten to death last month.
Coombs’ brother said ACS officials had stopped by the apartment several times before the death.
Police remove evidence from the Brooklyn home where Zamair Coombs was beaten to death.
According to sources, ACS investigated a pair of allegations against the mom in 2015: Failure to provide medical care in March and inadequate supervision three months later. Both were deemed unfounded. Details of the beleaguered agency’s investigations were not revealed.
Police sources said there were also three prior domestic incident reports involving the mother — in 2002, 2006 and 2011.
Coombs’ family ran four day care centers, and state officials confirmed Zarah Coombs had been employed by their Leading Star Academy since February 2014.
A source indicated Coombs told investigators the fatal assault began because she was stressed out while caring for the victim’s two younger siblings — ages 1 year and 1 month.
Coombs’ brother said ACS officials had stopped by the apartment several times before the death According to sources, ACS investigated a pair of allegations against the mom in 2015: Failure to provide medical care in March and inadequate supervision three months later. Both were deemed unfounded. Details of the beleaguered agency’s investigations were not revealed.
Police sources said there were also three prior domestic incident reports involving the mother — in 2002, 2006 and 2011.
Coombs’ family ran four day care centers, and state officials confirmed Zarah Coombs had been employed by their Leading Star Academy since February 2014.
A source indicated Coombs told investigators the fatal assault began because she was stressed out while caring for the victim’s two younger siblings — ages 1 year and 1 month.In a series of 2014 Facebook posts, the murder suspect wrote about her doomed son Zamair — in one case, adding a now-chilling photo in which he ate a breakfast of egg whites, toast and blueberries.
Coombs initially claimed Zamair died after she left him unattended inside the storage bin where her boyfriend found the child’s limp body, the sources said. She claimed she was tending to one of the smaller kids when he was injured.
Richardson tried unsuccessfully to perform CPR on the boy before police and EMTs arrived. Coombs was arrested after coming clean with detectives about what really happened, the sources said.
“I don’t even know how I feel, part of me is like, Zamair is going to come from around the corner and say, ‘Daddy.’ ” Richardson told The News. “Since I’ve been in the picture, there has been no foul play with these kids and if I had seen something that I didn’t think was right, I would of said something about it.”
Coombs’ brother Michael Thomas offered little support after the arrest.
“This is unacceptable, intolerable for you to kill a 4-year-old,” said Thomas. “A sister or not, she has to be held accountable.”
Thomas described the grim scene outside the apartment when he arrived amid the flashing lights and howling sirens of police cars and medical personnel.
“They were pumping on his chest,” Thomas, 53, said of his nephew. “When I saw them inserting the breathing tube, you know that’s bad. He was foaming at the mouth.”Thomas said he was initially told the little boy took a spill and cracked his head after stepping on some loose towels in the bathroom.
Coombs, who tried to hide her face behind her dredlocks at her arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court late Thursday, was also charged with manslaughter, acting in a manner injurious to a child and criminal possession of a weapon. She was granted emergency psychiatric care and placed on suicide watch. She must undergo a 30-day mental health observation.
The mom’s two youngest kids were both fathered by her current boyfriend, while Zamair and a 9-year-old child have different dads, sources said. Both dads are in jail.
The boy’s grandfather said he was kept away from Zamair by Coombs and Richardson. Asked if the couple were good parents, the grandfather demurred.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t want to get into that.”
via: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/mom-admits-fatally-beating-4-year-old-boy-brooklyn-home-article-1.2956011
Suspects claim teen was having sex with father before alleged gang rape
The fifth suspect wanted in the gang rape of an 18-year-old girl in Brooklyn last week was nabbed Tuesday at school, law enforcement sources said.
The suspect, Travis Beckford, 17, of Brooklyn was being questioned by cops after he was picked up at Tilden High School. He has yet to be charged, sources said. Meanwhile, two other suspects in the shocking crime told investigators that the five youths came across the young woman as she was having sex with her father in the Osborn Playground in Brownsville around 9 p.m. Thursday, sources said.
“Can we have some of that?” one asked the dad, who was allegedly drunk and had been boozing with his daughter before the attack, sources said.
Two of the teens say they then had consensual sex with the victim while her sloshed dad staggered away.
The dad returned and chucked a bottle at the teens, who fled, said one of the suspects, according to the sources. The victim, the sources added, was combative, tried to flee from cops at the scene and bit an officer when she was finally placed in an ambulance after first refusing to go to the hospital and fighting with EMS.The woman claimed to have bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, but was not prescribed any medicines.
Police observed multiple healed scars on the victim’s arms.
Once she arrived at Kings County Hospital, she finally consented to a rape kit test.
Cops took her clothing and underwear, which they found at the scene, for DNA testing.
The dad walked into two local delis looking for help — but was too drunk for anyone to understand him, witnesses said.
“He was swaying side to side. He asked me, ‘Lend me your phone.’ I said no,’’ said a worker in one of the shops, Zaida Deli and Grocery.
“He didn’t tell me it was an emergency or ‘I need to call the police’ or of course I would’ve given it to him or just called the police for him.”
As for two of the suspects’ claims that the sex was consensual, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said, “At this juncture, we have no doubt she was raped.”
The first four teens were charged early Tuesday for their roles in the gang rape, while charges were pending against the fifth alleged attacker.
Denzel Murray, 14, Shaquell Cooper, 15, Ethan Phillip, 15, and Onandi Brown, 17, were each charged with rape, forcible compulsion, criminal sex act and sex abuse, police said.
The four teens were all charged as adults and were being held pending arraignment early Tuesday.
Two of the teens were brought in by their mothers Sunday night, the third was picked up at an undisclosed location and the fourth turned himself in, sources said.
“She has cuts and bruises consistent with being physically attacked,” a source added of the victim.
Police said the girl told detectives in a “detailed interview” at her house that one of her attackers had a bright red “satin-type’’ jacket on.
A video of the teens at a local bodega shows at least one of them wearing such a jacket, police said.
While two of the teens claim they engaged in consensual sex with her, a third suspect said he left the playground before the assault, sources said. The fourth teen is refusing to talk.
Police said they have video that shows the girl and her dad buying 22-ounce cans of beer at a bodega and entering the park before the attack.
The victim told cops that she and her 39-year-old dad — whom she only recently reconnected with after being adopted — were drinking near the handball courts “to be away from the police,” sources said.
Their plan backfired when the teens, including one with a gun, confronted them and ordered the father to scram, the pair told cops.
Surveillance video from the store shows the victim’s father walking inside before he begins to chat with two men. He does not appear to be frantic or in distress.
After walking out of the store, the dad drunkenly ran past a marked police car before eventually circling back and alerting the cops to his daughter’s attack — 20 minutes after the alleged rape first began to unfold, sources said.
Local activists complained that residents didn’t learn of the attack until it was publicized by the media over the weekend — and Mayor Bill de Blasio joined in the chorus of gripes Monday.
“The mayor was informed on Sunday of the tragic assault in Brooklyn. After further conversations with the NYPD, the mayor now believes strongly that the local community should have been informed sooner and has instructed that the NYPD notify communities more quickly moving forward, whenever appropriate,” a rep said.