Latest news with #Bronxite
New York Post
23-07-2025
- New York Post
Witnesses reveal terrifying moment NYC shoplifter threatened ‘I can kill ya'll' before CVS worker fatally stabbed him: testimony
A deranged serial shoplifter yelled 'I can kill ya'll' before the CVS shelf stocker now charged with manslaughter knifed him to death at a Times Square store, Manhattan jurors heard this week. Witnesses took the stand at Scotty Enoe's trial to describe the bloody scene that unfolded after Charles Brito, a 50-year-old homeless man, burst through the doors of the Broadway and West 49th Street shop in July 2023. 'I can kill ya'll, I can kill everybody,' Brito shouted, then CVS manager-in-training Katrina Rivera testified in Manhattan Supreme Court. 4 Scotty Enoe, a former CVS employee accused of fatally stabbing a shoplifter in 2023, at his trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on July 16, 2025. Steven Hirsch 'He's just basically saying he could do whatever he wants,' Rivera, 45, told the jury, according to a transcript obtained by The Post. 'Then he said he can kill people. I fight people. Just get out of my way, I'm gonna keep on coming.' Enoe, 48, is charged with fatally stabbing Brito in what he says was self-defense. Brito, a known shoplifter at area drugstores, punched Enoe several times during the brawl that erupted after he made the threats, 'smacking' the worker against the doors of coolers he'd filled with drinks, another witness said. Brito later made more frightening threats in another area of the store, where two female employees tried to stop him from opening another cooler, Rivera told the court. The chronic thief had been arguing with Rivera and another employee, Allandrea Hollness, when a bruised and bleeding Enoe walked back up to him, both women testified. 4 Enoe claims he stabbed Charles Brito in self defense. Prosecutors said Enoe then pulled out a small folding knife and stabbed Brito eight times — piercing his liver twice — before a bloody Brito staggered onto the sidewalk and later died. Hollness, a prosecution witness, testified that the unarmed but 'aggressive' Brito swung his elbows near Rivera's face during the confrontation, though the slain man never struck either woman. 'Those elbows kept flying?' defense lawyer Frank Rothman asked during cross-examination on July 17. 4 Katrina Rivera, a CVS manager-in-training at the time, testified that Brito yelled 'I can kill y'all' after barging into the store. Helayne Seidman 'Yes,' the 33-year-old Bronxite replied. 'That's when Scotty came?' Rothman asked. 'Yes,' Hollness responded. 'I just saw Scotty basically pull him off,' she said. 'I saw them fighting, and the next thing I knew the shoplifter was screaming that he's bleeding, got stabbed. I saw the blood.' Hollness also revealed that after the deadly episode, she told police that she didn't like working nights at the CVS because she feared being attacked by a violent drug addict. 'You would wonder going to work what druggie was going to attack you?' Rothman asked her. 'One hundred percent,' Hollness responded. Enoe, who is out on $100,000 bail, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Manhattan jurors — who are set to start deliberations by the end of the week — can acquit him if they find that he acted 'reasonably,' either to protect himself or to protect Hollness and Rivera. A CVS security guard who witnessed the stabbing testified that his job was to 'observe, watch and report' — but not to physically confront anyone committing a crime. 4 Enoe's defense attorney said that the CVS employee was getting his head bashed in by Brito before the stabbing. Steven Hirsch 'So people were kind of on their own if they get attacked? There was no one in the store who could protect them?' Rothman asked the guard, Roosevelt Tucker. 'Right,' replied Tucker, who testified that he didn't carry a gun, taser or club. Enoe had 'gotten the worse' of the initial scuffle, prosecutors conceded in opening statements earlier this month. Jurors saw photos of Enoe's swollen eye and busted lip he suffered during the encounter. 'The guy was just like holding on to Scotty with one hand and smacking him with the other,' testified another eyewitness, then-CVS employee Jose Ramos Martinez. 'He was smacking him against the cooler doors,' Martinez told jurors.
New York Post
15-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Two disgraced ex-NYC council members seek comebacks in Democratic Party primaries
Anthony Weiner isn't the only bad boy attempting a comeback for a City Council seat. Ex-Council members Andy King and Ruben Wills are are also seeking redemption at the ballot box in Democratic Party primaries after they were pushed out of office in the face of controversies. King, a former Bronx councilman, was expelled by the City Council in 2020 following a spate of misconduct allegations. 4 Former City Councilman Andy King is attempting to make a political comeback in the Democratic primary. Matthew McDermott An ethics panel substantiated claims that he'd harassed a female staffer and mistreated other employees, taken a $2,000 kickback — then ignored the chamber's attempts to discipline him. He denied the claims and is now running on his old turf in District 12 against heavily-favored incumbent Kevin Riley. But King told The Post, 'I apologize if I offended anyone.' 'The people in the 12th District asked me to run against Kevin Riley,' King said. 'You play until the buzzer. I think we have a shot,' the former high school and college basketball player told The Post. 4 King was expelled from the City Council in 2020. King said public safety and street cleaning are his major priorities and emphasized working in partnership with police. 'The NYPD are our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters and sons and daughters,' he said. 'I never supported 'defund the police.' His opponent Riley was first elected in 2021, after having worked 10 years for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a fellow Bronxite. He is endorsed by some of the major labor unions — SEIU 1199 representing health care workers, building workers union Local 32 BJ, and District Council 37, the largest union of city municipal employees. 'I believe the community will make the right decision,' Riley said. The district includes the neighborhoods of Williamsbridge-Olinville, Bronxwood, Eastchester-Edenwald-Baychester, Wakefield, Allerton-Parkside, Baychester, The Valley, and Co-op City. Meanwhile, Wills is running for his old seat in District 28 in Southeast Queens. The seat is now occupied by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who can't run for re-election because of term limits. Adams is instead running in a Democratic Party primary for mayor. Wills was convicted of corruption in 2017 for using public funds to pay for personal expenses and served eight months in prison but his conviction was reversed on appeal in 2021. 4 Former Councilman Ruben WIlls is running for his old District 28 seat in Queens. FilmMagic He is now seeking vindication following his exoneration. Wills, through his campaign, declined to comment. Among his rivals is Adams' chief of staff and longtime aide Tyrell 'Ty' Hankerson, who has the backing of the speaker, the Queens Democratic Party leadership and more than a dozen of the city's major labor unions. 4 Anthony Weiner campaigning on the Lower East Side on May 29, 2025. Angelina Katsanis/AP Scandal-scarred Weiner, a former Congress member, is taking a stab at re-entering public life after being sentenced to 21 months in jail in 2017 for sexting with a minor. He has his eyes set on replacing term-limited lefty Carlina Rivera in Manhattan's District 2 that includes the East Village and the Lower East Side. His chief competitors include state Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan) and ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio aide and nonprofit leader Sarah Batchu.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gun violence is directly challenged by teen-owned businesses
CONCOURSE, The Bronx (PIX11) — June is Gun Violence Awareness Month, and while some new statistics from the NYPD show significant — and even record-breaking — progress in the fight against gun crimes, some other information from the police shows that there's still much work to do. That was the upshot of a gun violence awareness event organized by leaders of government, law enforcement, and education in The Bronx on Monday, in Lou Gehrig Plaza, on 161st Street. More Local News But right across the street, in Bronx Borough Hall, another event took place that's meant to both counter and reduce crimes involving gun shooting. It was all happening exactly three weeks after a stray bullet took the life of Evette Jeffrey, a 16-year-old innocent bystander in a schoolyard in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. One of the leaders of the gun violence awareness rally spoke about the tragedy directly. 'As a mother, as an educator, and a lifelong Bronxite,' said Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, 'this hit home.' Aviles-Ramos joined with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, District Attorney Darcel Clark, NYPD Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, and violence interruption groups at the Gun Violence Awareness Month launch event. It happened at the same time that the city reported its lowest number of homicides in any five-month period ever, as well as recording a 21 percent drop in shootings this year, citywide. Still, said Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, the highest ranking NYPD officer in the Bronx, 'There's so much work to do, because we also see that there are a lot of guns in the street. [There are also] a lot of shots fired, and those are just shootings that missed,' Gurley said at the gun violence awareness event. He was referring to stats like the following, which the NYPD released at the same time as its record low homicide numbers: shooting incidents are up 30.8 percent in the Bronx's 40th Precinct this year, and up more than 112 percent in the last two years; there was a 200 percent increase in shootings — from 1 to 3 — in the last week of May in the 42nd Precinct in the Bronx. A big part of the problem, according to District Attorney Darcel Clark, 'It's just so much more rampant that the younger kids are getting the guns now.' She said that with each passing year since 2018, when state law raised the minimum age for adult sentencing to 18 from 16, there has been a higher incidence of early teens committing gun crimes. Drawing attention to that, as well as other gun violence issues, is why violence interruptors and city leaders are encouraging people to wear orange, the color of the gun violence awareness campaign. Across the street from the launch event, inside Bronx Borough Hall, the color was seen on the chests of young people at tables lining the perimeters of the building's cavernous central hall. It was the presentation of teen entrepreneurs' business projects, as they received grants from the city to fund them. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State Councilmembers Kevin Riley and Althea Stewart helped secure grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 for about two dozen businesses and non-profits started by Bronx-based high schoolers. They were on hand for the Monday fair, with their orange ribbons pinned to their blouses, shirts, and sweaters. 'It's supposed to symbolize anti-gun violence month,' said Shania Mayfield, a senior at the Academy of Scholarship and Entrepreneurship, in the Wakefield section of the borough. She was at the fair, at a table displaying the work of the non-profit she founded with fellow senior Kayla Moore, who was seated beside her. Guardian Angels Tutoring Services, Inc. is the non-profit they founded. It trains and schedules tutoring and mentoring services. Its purpose, said Moore, is that 'students can have something to do after school, and it's something where they can earn money, while helping other people.' The fair and the program in which they're involved are run by the organization Parents Uplifting our Daughters and Sons, or PUDS. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson went to the fair right after leading the gun violence awareness rally across the street. She said that just as important as gun violence awareness is the promotion of teens' business skills. They're an antidote to the violence, she said. '[It gives] young people opportunities to be successful,' Gibson said in an interview, 'where they don't have to think about engaging in negative behavior.' Jamila Davis, the founder of PUDS, said that the entrepreneur grants are given out at the end of the school year, strategically. It's right before the summer season, which tends to be the busiest time for teen entrepreneurs' sales. That busy sales season comes at the same time as the city typically sees a rise in gun violence. In other words, said organizers of both the Gun Violence Awareness Month launch and the teen entrepreneurs' fair, the teens' businesses directly counter gun violence in the borough. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Opinion: After a Stray Bullet Kills a NYC Teen, Chancellor Calls for Community Support
They say it takes a village to raise a child, but in our increasingly online post-pandemic world, our families are forced to navigate resources alone. In many communities, including my own, the responsibility to care for, monitor and protect our children falls solely to families and schools. Imagine how much stronger our cities would be if we were to embrace an ecosystem of care, with faith institutions, businesses, and local organizations working alongside families and schools. Across the country, there is a deep youth mental health crisis that is fueling a trend of violence among our babies. In Denver, Colorado, an average of 700 young people under 25 are affected by gun violence each year. In Alameda County, California, gun violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter According to Everytown statistics, 60 children and teens are impacted by firearms every day in the United States. As parents and guardians, we pour our whole selves into our children. No one should ever have to endure the agony of losing a child, especially to something as preventable as gun violence. Earlier this month, in my community, Evette Jeffrey, a 16-year-old girl in the Bronx was killed by a stray bullet fired by another teenager. As a mother, an educator, and a lifelong Bronxite, this tragedy was personal for me, and I saw firsthand the impact of this devastation across the borough. The following week, another two babies were victims of gun violence in Brooklyn. It is unacceptable that over 30 children under the age of 18 have been killed or injured in New York City this year alone. The pandemic lockdowns left our young people feeling isolated and emotionally adrift. The CDC reports the number of children experiencing persistent sadness or hopelessness remains 10% higher than in 2013. For two years, we told our children that their entire lives are online, from their instruction to enrichment, and beyond. Now, we're seeing the repercussions: Our kids don't know who to talk to or where to go when they are in crisis. Related Teens are increasingly tethered to their phones — half of those aged 12 to 17 reported four or more hours of daily screen time between July 2021 and December 2023. Throughout the pandemic, our children were forced to live their lives through social media and virtual schooling. Now, as we bring them back to in person socialization, it's no wonder that they're ill equipped. As the leader of the nation's largest school district, it is my responsibility to lead New York City Public Schools' response to this mental health epidemic at its root. If we are to do right by our kids, we cannot just address the symptoms of this crisis. The solution lies in community interdependence. We've seen glimpses of this kind of symbiosis at work in places like California, which like New York City, is offering free online mental health counseling, or Chicago, where local nonprofits are supporting afterschool programs and other services at high-poverty campuses. We must continue to scale this work. In our schools, we must teach our kids how to use technology responsibly and appropriately. Devices can be used to enrich and support classroom instruction, offering real-time support in math class or opportunities to explore the world without leaving the neighborhood. We must also learn to take care of ourselves so that we can be better and stronger for our kids. We are role models, leaders, and safe, trusted grown-ups. Our students must be able to turn to us without judgement in times of need. But this goes beyond us. For this to work, I call upon our business owners to be more than just bystanders. When you welcome our kids by name when they enter your store, it shows that there are adults who care and who they can turn to when they need to feel seen, heard, and protected. Related I call upon our faith leaders to be active partners with the schools in their communities. If they see a child who is struggling, reach out so we can get them help before it's too late. Robust in-school mental health supports are essential, but they can't stand alone. We need community mental health partners to amplify their impact. Local universities, we need you to bolster the mental health worker pipeline and place young professionals-in-training in schools to build out capacity. We're asking our community-based organizations and leaders with social capital in our neighborhoods to keep their ears to the ground — aware of brewing tensions, conflicts, and signs of distress — so we can act before violence erupts. The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments noted that 'developing and sustaining comprehensive mental health systems should be a shared endeavor between schools and community partners.' We all bear a collective responsibility in ensuring that every child gets the bright and bold future they deserve, and it is up to us to work together to identify at-risk youth and intervene early. As New York City mourns the loss of one of our own, I remain committed to honoring that life by protecting others. Our young people are crying out for help, and we must answer. It will take all of us. Let's get to work. All of us — community members, business leaders, faith leaders, and families — need to rally together to make sure our students have a safe adult in their lives they can turn to in times of crisis. Let's get to work.
