INSIDE BROOKLYN’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER Including The Downtown News, Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill Paper and Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Paper Where romance is on the menu 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 • 14 pages including GO BROOKLYN • Vol.26, No. 6 BWN, DTG, PSG, MID • February 10, 2003 • FREE Brazen gunman holds up D’town Robs armored truck, hides in LIU, eludes massive manhunt by police By Patrick Gallahue According to police, at ating the building I felt was “I got a double whammy,” The Brooklyn Papers 10:30 am, two armed guards disorganized,” she said. “I’m he said. from New Jersey-based just thinking that he got out.” By around 2 pm, the police An armed robber fled Shields Business Solutions en- Bloodhounds and German called off their search, and po- into Long Island Univers- tered the Metcalfe Building on shepherds swarmed the build- lice department spokesman ity’s Downtown Brooklyn the LIU campus, at the corner ing as the rain thinned out the Capt. James Klein announced, campus Tuesday after- of Flatbush and DeKalb av- crowd that had gathered out- “No one was found.” noon, after holding up an enues, to fill an ATM ma- side. Car-jacking armored car and robbing chine. One of the guards had James Schinazi, 19, a phar- opened the ATM when he dis- Shortly before police called $74,000 and firearms from macy major from Midwood, off their search around LIU, a two guards delivering the covered his partner was being waited in the rain, however, be- held at gunpoint. car was stolen at gunpoint cash to a campus ATM. cause his car was parked on The robber took the cash from a Brooklyn Hospital The melee emptied the cam- from the guards, and also one of the blocked-off streets. parking lot on Ashland Place, The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango pus and Flatbush Avenue was wrested away their firearms, He had come outside to fill the between DeKalb Avenue and Over there… cordoned off for three hours, meter when the building was which consisted of a Heckler & Willoughby Street. Captain Robert Kohrs (far right) preps members of the Marines Sixth Communication Battalion at Fort Hamilton Sat- but the gunman managed to Koch .40-caliber semiautomat- evacuated forcing him to leave An employee of the garage, urday on all the paperwork that they will need to fill out before they are shipped off to the Persian Gulf. elude police and K-9 units. ic and a Springfield .357 Mag- his books in the tutoring center. See HEIST on page 3 num. The bandit then fled up- stairs and into the LIU building. The perpetrator was de- scribed as a black male, about 6 feet tall and 160 pounds, dressed in a black, three-quar- ter-length bubble jacket. W’front plan makes cut Joyce Joseph, 19, a phar- Witnesses macy major from Queens, was in the physics lab in the Yassky: Despite budget deficit, mayor still behind Bridge Park Metcalfe Building when she heard the fire alarm. eye new “We thought it was a joke,” By Patrick Gallahue The city is expected to build a Yassky had expressed con- the city was just looking for unless conditions change dur- she said, before being told in The Brooklyn Papers pebble beach and develop cern last October that the plan- places from which to cut. The ing negotiations between the the hallway to evacuate the more green space around the ners were not moving quickly funding, however, will still be City Council and Bloomberg building. Brooklyn Bridge Park playground this year. enough to use the funds while available in Fiscal Year 2004, to finalize a budget. survived Mayor Michael Whether it was school se- curity or the thief who pulled Jay St. site Bloomberg’s preliminary the alarm to create a distrac- budget proposal this week. tion was unclear. In a forum sponsored by the Hundreds of students milled By Patrick Gallahue review required to rezone the DUMBO Neighborhood, Vine- around outside the school while The Brooklyn Papers parcel from light manufactur- gar Hill and Fulton Ferry Land- Prospect Parkers head to Albany around 100 officers from the The Watchtower Bible ing to residential. ing associations at Bargemusic, NYPD’s Emergency Services “We are just going through docked off Fulton Ferry Land- Unit and the 84th and 88th and Tract Society of New the process with the Depart- ing, Councilman David Yassky By Patrick Gallahue precincts closed Flatbush Av- York, better known as the ment of City Planning in announced that despite a grim The Brooklyn Papers enue to traffic and cordoned off Jehovah’s Witnesses, is Brooklyn and in Manhattan to fiscal picture, “We have some In a combination learning and lobby- the entire 10-acre campus. circulating plans to devel- basically see how this project piece of good news.” ing expedition the Prospect Park Youth Police dogs scoured the op a parking lot at 85 Jay could develop from their point Brooklyn Bridge Park — a Council and Prospect Park Alliance building top to bottom and of- St. in DUMBO. of view,” Cady said. 67-acre commercial and recre- ficers extended their search The three-acre parcel — Beyer Blinder Belle, the ational development planned Community Council went to Albany Jan. 21 for their fifth annual “Prospect into the nearby Walt Whitman bounded by Jay, Front, Bridge Manhattan-based architectural for the waterfront from Jay and Raymond Ingersoll hous- and York streets, half a block firm behind the Mark Morris Street, under the Manhattan Park Day” at the state Capitol. ing complexes as well as the from the Manhattan Bridge Dance Center in Fort Greene, Bridge, 1.3 miles south to Jo- “It’s great, because the teenagers learn a Fulton Mall. overpass — was purchased by among other projects, has been ralemon Street — “wasn’t lot about government and how it works,” The campus’ five academic the Watchtower Society in the hired to create the design of touched,” he said, despite a said Prospect Park Administrator Tupper buildings are connected via early 1990s, and is slated for the building but formal details, proposed slashing of the city’s Thomas, who is president of the alliance. third-floor bridges and can be residential housing for the reli- such as height, materials and capital budget by 26 percent. The alliance chartered buses for the trip difficult even for seasoned gious group’s members. renderings, are not yet avail- The city, which represents a from Park Slope and once in Albany the 25 students to navigate, said Keith Cady, the Watchtower able, according to Cady. total commitment of $65 mil- teens split into groups to meet with different Melanie Hill-Cantey, a coordi- Society’s project coordinator “The comments we have re- lion towards the development, Brooklyn state Senate and Assembly legisla- nator in the student mentor for the 85 Jay St. site, said the ceived from the community has allocated almost $11 mil- tors to make a Power Point presentation program and an alumnus of proposal is currently being dis- board, from neighborhood lion towards Brooklyn Bridge about what the youth council does and the the university. cussed with the Department of groups and from City Planning Park in Fiscal Year 2003 for role it plays in the community. Hill-Cantey said hiding out City Planning but has not yet is that they would like to see it landscaping north of the The youth council was founded in 1998, in the school would be more been certified to begin its pas- developed in a way that is Brooklyn Bridge around Main Prospect Park’s Bailey Fountain, (seen above in 1932) is undergoing a $1.5 for young people between the ages of 14 and difficult than slipping out dur- sage through the city’s Uni- contextual with the light man- Street Park, at the intersection million renovation. Reconstruction of the 70-year-old fountain should be 21 to develop leadership skills, help maintain ing the evacuation. form Land Use Review Proce- ufacturing buildings that are of Main and Plymouth streets. completed by fall. NYC Park Photo Archive See ALBANY on page 4 “The way they were evacu- dure (ULURP), a public See WITNESS on page 4 POST NO BILL DeBlasio won’t put name to gay measure By Patrick Gallahue paign promises. Island’s Michael McMahon. The Brooklyn Papers The bill, Intro. 271, was au- The legislation would re- quire an entity contracting with Councilman Bill DeBlas- thored by Manhattan Council- woman Christine Quinn and is the city to provide benefits to io’s decision not to co-spon- Associated Press being co-sponsored by 30 domestic partners registered with the city, or partners of a sor a bill extending employ- council members including ment benefits to domestic civil union recognized by an- David Yassky, of Brooklyn other jurisdiction. The legisla- partners has gay rights Heights; James Davis, of Fort groups claiming the Park tion is currently circulating in Greene; Yvette Clarke, of Flat- the council to collect enough Shuttle disaster recalls Christa Slope official’s ambitions bush; as well as more conser- sponsors to ensure it could are overshadowing his cam- vative Democrats, like Staten withstand a mayoral veto. DeBlasio, who has been Dyker School named for teacher-astronaut holds moment of silence one of the more progressive voices in the council, and who By Deborah Kolben still claims to be an advocate The Brooklyn Papers Bank rob arrest of the bill, has asked that it be While investigators pieced together clues amended to exempt religious institutions.