Cops Arrest Boasting D'town Bank Robber…
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Jobs, homes, services: in Classifieds B’klyn Dems subpoenaed: p.4 INSIDE BROOKLYN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER Including The Downtown News, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper Celebrate Brooklyn’s 25th anniversary Published weekly by Brooklyn Paper Publications Inc, 26 Court St., Brooklyn 11242 Phone 718-834-9350 AD fax 718-834-1713 • NEWS fax 718-834-9278 © 2003 Brooklyn Paper Publications • 16 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol.26, No. 20 BWN • May 19, 2003 • FREE Cops arrest boasting D’town bank robber… By Patrick Gallahue homeless man, began his robbery spree in Bed- tween Court and Clinton streets, at around 12:30 The Brooklyn Papers ford-Stuyvesant in February, eventually making pm, police said. The teller complied and handed his way to Downtown Brooklyn on March 1. over $950 in denominations of $50, $20 and $10 A homeless bank robber, who may have According to police sources cited by the New bills before the suspect fled on Joralemon Street. boasted of his crimes to the wrong person, York Post, Brown boasted to the anonymous tip- Four weeks later, Brown returned to Down- was arrested April 29 and confessed to 14 ster about a robbery he pulled off at the HSBC town Brooklyn, police said, to hold up a Banco bank robberies, including two in Down- Bank right across the street from City Hall. Popular on Livingston Street, between Smith and town Brooklyn. He was apprehended on Nostrand Avenue be- Hoyt streets, on March 28 at around 9:15 am. The arrest came as police stepped up the pres- tween Hancock and Halsey streets in Crown Brown passed a note that said, “Don’t move, sure to curb a wave of bank robberies citywide. Heights. me and my partner will kill everybody. Don’t Police were led to Bryant Brown, 37, by an On March 1, Brown passed a note demanding [mess] with me. Just put 20s and 100s on the anonymous tip. According to police, Brown, a cash at a North Fork Bank on Joralemon Street, be- See NABBED on page 6 …but how safe are banks? / Brad Horrigan The Brooklyn Papers It’s a sad story that’s become all too familiar. A woman entered a Chase Bank on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope to withdraw mon- ey from an ATM vestibule. It was mid-afternoon on Jan. Papers The Brooklyn 20, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a bank holiday. Suddenly she was attacked by a mugger. He tried to grab $600 from her hands. Endangered habitat As a man in the vestibule stood idly by, a woman with a child in a stroller happened in and seeing what was go- Annalicia Massiah, 11, holds a sign at the Prospect Park Zoo Friday protesting its possible closure due to ing on held the mugger at bay so the woman could escape budget cuts. Monica Franklin, 10 (far right), joins the impassioned plea. All pictured are students at PS with her money and call the police. 269 on Nostrand Avenue. Rally also drew elected officials and actors John Turturro and Steve Buscemi. The mugger was eventually captured by police from the 78th Precinct, but a few months later the victim saw the bank was handing out flowers as part of a Mother’s Day promotion. Thinking back to being stranded in the vestibule in broad daylight, with no security guard in sight, she wondered why a blatantly commercial promo- / Brad Horrigan tion was more important to the bank managers than the Cops: Bomber planned security of their customers. “They’re spending money on a lot of stupid [public re- lations] things,” the woman told The Brooklyn Papers, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They should really The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn be putting it towards a security guard.” attack from behind bars Chase Bank ATM vestibule on Ninth Street at Fifth Avenue in Park Slope was And while security at ATMs and the lack of a security scene of a Martin Luther King Day mugging. See SAFETY on page 6 By Patrick Gallahue after a former prison buddy of Al- The Brooklyn Papers EXCLUSIVE ster’s was charged with planting five pipe bombs and two guns in A man imprisoned for the the first degree, two counts of the sport utility vehicle, which 2001 bombing of a Brooklyn was parked outside the officer’s Heights police officer’s home criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, five counts of Montague Street home, where she is facing charges that he lives with her husband and two orchestrated a March plot to criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and tampering children. Cash-strapped Museum plant more pipe bombs in her A spokesman for District Attor- with physical evidence, a source family car to make it look like close to the investigation told the ney Charles Hynes declined to the bomber was still on the Brooklyn Papers. comment. Alster attorney Carl loose. A grand jury is hearing the Spector said, “Until I see the indict- Convicted Montague Street charges and will decide whether to ment, there’s really no comment.” to close for two weeks bomber Stephen Alster faces new indict. The source told The Papers the charges of placing a false bomb in The charges come two weeks See BOMBER on page 6 By Patrick Gallahue tion in the museum’s endowment The Brooklyn Papers income caused by the economic downturn — now demands that we The doors of the Brooklyn take this step, among others.” Museum of Art will be closed The museum is facing a $2.4 to the public for two weeks in million decrease in city support in Beep’s B’klyn Bridge bash mid-August as a cost-saving fiscal year 2004. Its overall budget measure. is $28 million. Other institutions are also facing The closing is emblematic of the By Patrick Gallahue drastic cuts and have once again fiscal shortfalls facing cultural insti- The Brooklyn Papers warned that everything is on the tutions, and telling of how those It’s been more than a year in table, from furloughs to eliminating groups will face them. the making and now Borough the beluga whale exhibit at the New The Brooklyn Academy of Music President Marty Markowitz York Aquarium in Coney Island. already furloughed its employees last will have his grand party to Brooklyn Museum officials an- year, costing them three days of vaca- nounced this week that from Aug. 4 tion time. To trim about $1 million celebrate both the Brooklyn through Aug. 19, the museum will be from its $27 million budget next year, Bridge and his hometown. closed and the entire 300-person staff BAM will cut its opera season from Flanked by women dressed as / Tom Callan / Tom of union and non-union employees three performances to one, cancel its / Brad Horrigan the Statue of Liberty and as Emily furloughed for one of the two weeks. gospel brunches and eliminate its Roebling — who served as a The museum’s director, Arnold magazine, said Karen Brooks Hop- deputy to her infirm husband, the Lehman, said in a statement, “The kins, the institution’s president. master builder of the bridge, Wash- seriousness of our fiscal situation But there’s still more to be done, ington Roebling — Markowitz de- The Brooklyn Papers The Brooklyn — primarily due to diminished sup- she said. Papers The Brooklyn lineated the May 24 celebrations port from the city as well as from “Now we’re looking at person- Students visiting Brooklyn Museum Wednesday view its expanded for the 120th birthday of Brook- Fireworks light up the Brooklyn Bridge in 1992 during quincen- the private sector and from a reduc- See MUSEUM on page 5 Egyptian art exhibit. The Museum will close for two weeks this summer. See BASH on page 5 tennial celebration of Columbus’ discovery of America. Police pitch in to help survivors of the shield By Neil Sloane as a woman, on the Staten Is- O’Neill’s, the bar that is part The Brooklyn Papers land Ferry. of the exterior Keyspan Park One thing about cops, Andrews was the father of complex. two boys, while Nemorin left Cipullo, along with Detec- when one of their own is in behind three children, aged 20 tive William LaVasseur and need just try to stop them months to 7 years old. former police officer Chris from helping. That concern At Keyspan Park, home of Scigliano organized the event extends to their families. the Brooklyn Cyclones minor and the softball tournament, No greater example of that league baseball team, several which began on April 26 in need be provided than a chari- hundred detectives and offi- Van Cortlandt Park in the ty softball tournament held at cers, their families and the Bronx with 40 teams. Keyspan Park in Coney Island Nemorin and Andrews fami- At least it was supposed to. Saturday. lies gathered to raise money See SOFTBALL on page 5 The event, organized by a but also to share a lighter mo- trio of NYPD detectives, raised ment on the occasionally sun- scholarship money for the sons and daughters of two detectives ny Saturday afternoon. gunned down in a Staten Island “It’s easy to put an ad in the buy-and-bust operation that paper and ask for donations,” went horribly wrong. said Vic Cipullo, treasurer of Detectives Rodney An- the Detectives Endowment drews, 34, and James Ne- Association, who was one of / Greg Mango / Greg / Greg Mango / Greg morin, 36, were shot to death the day’s organizers.