News: NYC Police Commissioner’s Son Accused

(Long Island, N.Y.) The forty-three-year-old son of the New York City Police Commissioner and co-host of “Good Day New York,” a morning television show for New York City, has been accused of sexual assault. Allegedly, the accuser had gone to police on Tuesday, two days before the anchor was absent from work. The accusations come from an incident that occurred on October 8th.

The television personality’s lawyer had denied the accusations which began with the two having drinks and resulted in a visit to the accuser’s office. It is there that the attack allegedly occurred, and sources claimed that they had met on the street. The identity of the accuser has not been revealed.

According to reports, police had immediately turned the case over to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in fear of creating a conflict of interest. The forty-three-year-old’s father has been police commissioner for about a decade. His son has worked for ten years as a newsman.

Sources claimed that a FOX official announced he had requested time off without giving a reason. Prior to his work at FOX, he was employed at NewYork1 and NewsChannel34. He was in the Marine Corps for almost a decade and became a lieutenant colonel in their reserves.

The boyfriend of the accuser allegedly got involved by telling the police commissioner that his son had ruined his girlfriend’s life. According to reports, he refused to talk in the particular setting and was instructed by the police commissioner to send a letter. It’s uncertain whether he followed the instruction, and whether a letter exists as part of the accusation.

The anchorman has covered the war in Iraq and had four assignments in Baghdad. He was a White House Correspondent from ’05-’07 and was then considered the most eligible anchorman on television. According to sources, he was criticized by the host of “The Soup” on E!Entertainment, but struck back by dressing like him on Halloween.

News: NYC Police Commissioner’s Son Accused

(Long Island, N.Y.) The forty-three-year-old son of the New York City Police Commissioner and co-host of “Good Day New York,” a morning television show for New York City, has been accused of sexual assault. Allegedly, the accuser had gone to police on Tuesday, two days before the anchor was absent from work. The accusations come from an incident that occurred on October 8th.

The television personality’s lawyer had denied the accusations which began with the two having drinks and resulted in a visit to the accuser’s office. It is there that the attack allegedly occurred, and sources claimed that they had met on the street. The identity of the accuser has not been revealed.

According to reports, police had immediately turned the case over to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in fear of creating a conflict of interest. The forty-three-year-old’s father has been police commissioner for about a decade. His son has worked for ten years as a newsman.

Sources claimed that a FOX official announced he had requested time off without giving a reason. Prior to his work at FOX, he was employed at NewYork1 and NewsChannel34. He was in the Marine Corps for almost a decade and became a lieutenant colonel in their reserves.

The boyfriend of the accuser allegedly got involved by telling the police commissioner that his son had ruined his girlfriend’s life. According to reports, he refused to talk in the particular setting and was instructed by the police commissioner to send a letter. It’s uncertain whether he followed the instruction, and whether a letter exists as part of the accusation.

The anchorman has covered the war in Iraq and had four assignments in Baghdad. He was a White House Correspondent from ’05-’07 and was then considered the most eligible anchorman on television. According to sources, he was criticized by the host of “The Soup” on E!Entertainment, but struck back by dressing like him on Halloween.

News: NYPD Officer Commits Suicide

(Long Island, N.Y.) A twenty-eight-year-old New York City Police Officer committed suicide Thursday night. According to sources, he had been on duty and in uniform at the time of the incident. The officer and his partner were allegedly investigating a series of car break-ins in Queens when the tragedy occurred.

The duo of police officers, from the 11th Precinct, had been in the area of Hollis Hills interviewing a crime victim. The man claimed to have had his car broken into during the previous day. The 11th Precinct covers Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston, Fresh Meadows, Hollis Hills, and Little Neck.

The twenty-eight-year-old had been a five-year veteran on the force and was fighting with his girlfriend via phone prior to taking his life. He allegedly stepped outside of the patrol car, engaged in a heated argument, and shot himself in the face. Some reports claimed that he put a gun in his mouth before firing a single shot that was heard throughout the neighborhood.

The identity of the officer has not been released and the incident is still under investigation. According to sources, officials handling the case had been waiting to notify the officer’s family before revealing his name to the public. The fatal shot occurred sometime between ten and eleven that evening, causing a rush of investigators and shaken neighbors to inhabit the quiet block.

Sources claimed that the officer was seen lying on his stomach face down and that his partner ran outside of a house at the sound of the gunshot. According to reports, neighbors stated that the other officer called for help via radio while attending to his bleeding partner. Some claimed prior to the incident, the street of the shooting had been the prettiest block in Hollis Hills.

The quiet neighborhood was closed off after being bombarded by investigators and first-responders that came by the dozens. The officer was taken by police car to Long Island Jewish Medical Center where he died. Some reports claimed that the officer passed in the back of the patrol car, which had been followed by another on the way to the hospital.

News: Lawsuit for SCPD in Gilgo Case

(Long Island, N.Y.) Prior to the holidays, the mother of the once missing person Shannan Gilbert sought legal counsel in an attempt to sue Suffolk County if certain changes are not met. The attorney handling the claims of Gilbert’s mother has spoken about her desire to seek justice for the alleged botchery of the Suffolk County Police Department in handling her daughter’s case. Unless the cases of all the Gilgo Beach victims are given to federal investigators, she will seek legal action.

The claim is that the Suffolk County Police Department blew the case of the once missing woman because they had been workers in the sex trade. While wanting a federal takeover of the investigation, Gilbert’s mother hopes the Department of Justice will take the case and hand it over to the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Alleged discrimination aimed at the women because of their ties to the sex trade has been an ongoing aspect of the case, and is now being labeled as a violation of their civil rights.

Gilbert’s mother and her attorney have expressed their hopes of beginning an investigation into the Suffolk County Police Department in addition to their pending plans for a lawsuit. Nonetheless, there are obvious discrepancies among the branches of law enforcement and many officials have expressed the need for the departments to work together. This is especially true in the case of the Gilgo Beach homicides.

While the police commissioner has stated that he supports the theory of one killer being responsible for the ten bodies found amongst the beach wetlands, the district attorney has openly denied the single-killer-theory by stating that many killers are behind it. The police commissioner was criticized for his handling of the high-profile case and for the alleged dangers in presenting multiple theories to the public.

The police department has also been criticized for the political influence of the former Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. Throughout the investigation, federal assistance has been given to certain aspects of the search. Despite the police department’s twenty-four percent drop in overall crime since 2004, it’s uncertain whether the FBI will be further involved in the Gilgo Beach case.

The body of Gilbert was found in recent weeks near the Oak Beach home where she was last seen alive. An interim police commissioner has been appointed until a new one can be placed in the position. As of last September, the Department of Justice informed the Suffolk County Police Department of the need to combat hate crimes on Long Island.

News: Funeral Held for ATF Agent on LI

(Long Island, N.Y.) The funeral was held on Friday for the fifty-one-year-old ATF agent killed by friendly-fire after a pharmacy robbery and shoot out. The fallen hero had worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for twenty-three years prior to the New Year’s Eve incident. Sources estimated that there were over six thousand who attended the service, lining the area for several blocks long.

The service was held in Seaford at the St. William the Abbot Roman Catholic Church and lasted for two hours. A eulogy was given by the US Attorney General before the casket was brought to St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale. The slain agent had grown up on Long Island and lived in the area with his wife and two children.

The fifty-one-year-old agent was praised more for how he lived than the heroic way in which he died. Fellow agents flew cross-country to attend his service, as he was remembered for a strong commitment to work. It was revealed that some duties of his job occurred overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was also remembered for being dedicated to his family despite the demands of his career. He took care of his mother during the time of illness before her death, which occurred just a month prior. His death has stunned the community, while his life dedicated to others continues to inspire.

According to reports, the agent had been picking up cancer medication for his father at the time of the incident. He witnessed a forty-three-year-old man attempt to rob the pharmacy by demanding painkillers and money. The man had held up the drug store with a pellet gun designed to look like a real weapon.

Two other members of law enforcement responded to the scene, a fifty-four-year-old retired Nassau County Police lieutenant and a twenty-nine-year-old off-duty NYPD officer. The lieutenant mistook the agent for the robber, fired, and killed him. The officer later gunned down and killed the suspect as he was attempting to retrieve a weapon from the sidewalk.

The fallen agent continues to be remembered by his fifteen-year-old daughter, a second-year student at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in West Islip. She describes her dad as a hero for what he did throughout his life, and claimed that it was in his blood to keep people safe. He is also survived by his fifty-five-year-old wife, an IRS agent, and eighteen-year-old son, a college freshman at Northeastern University.

News: Bay Shore Mom and Son Found Dead

(Long Island, N.Y.) A twenty-one-year-old woman and her two-year-old son were found dead Friday in their Bay Shore apartment. An autopsy was scheduled for over the holiday weekend to gather more information about their cause of deaths. They were found by police fifteen minutes past five that evening after the woman’s landlord came to check up on her.

The landlord and his wife live upstairs from the woman and her son in North Bay Shore’s South Cardinal Court. The woman was not seen for at least two days prior to the discovery of her body. Police and authorities on the case are not certain as to how long she had been missing or the exact time of death.

The woman was a worker in the dietitian department of Huntington Hospital and had been leasing the basement apartment for the past six months. Her body was discovered in the bedroom and her son was later found in another room. Investigators have not yet uncovered what motives may be behind her death, but have likely determined it to be a homicide.

Neighbors, who spoke to police and authorities on the case, have claimed that they saw a man living with the woman and her toddler. The young woman was believed to be unmarried and investigators have been trying to determine the identity of the person who lived in the apartment. One neighbor, who resides in the home directly behind the woman and toddler, claimed that she heard screaming during the police investigation a day after the deceased was discovered.

Though much information is still missing in the case, police and investigators have stated that the incident is probably not the result of a random act of violence. This is one of many holiday weekend tragedies to occur on Long Island. The remains of a woman and toddler were also discovered among the remains that investigators encountered after a search that was conducted December of last year at Gilgo Beach.

Police and authorities on the case have been asking anyone with information to contact them, and urge them to remember that all calls will remain anonymous. Reports stated that the woman and her son were identified over the weekend and that it’s possible for tips to come in since their names have been publicized.

News: Search Continues At Oak Beach

(Long Island, N.Y.) Police and authorities determined to find more about what happened to missing person Shannan Gilbert continued to search the thick brush this week for clues in her disappearance. According to reports, Friday marked the fourth day of the search which resumed after months of waiting for the optimum conditions. Throughout the week-long search, items belonging to Gilbert have been retrieved and there have been new developments in the case.

Monday began with a search of many places of interest for police and authorities on the case. Sources stated that ninety specific points between Ocean Parkway and Tobay Beach were searched in the attempt to obtain more information about Gilbert’s whereabouts. Places along the Robert Moses Causeway were also investigated as part of the overall search.

Tuesday’s search uncovered items belonging to Gilbert such as a pocketbook. According to reports, the pocketbook contained Gilbert’s identification and her family recognized it as her property. Sources also claimed that jeans and shoes were discovered, and matched the description of what Gilbert had been wearing on the night of her disappearance over a year ago.

Police and authorities believe to have found Gilbert’s cellphone during their search along the brush on Wednesday. Reports stated that Gilbert’s relatives consider the new findings as steps to uncover the truth about what happened to their beloved Shannan. While feeling that it is better to know that she may be alive, family members have also hoped to obtain answers in the case.

It was reported that Thursday’s search of the area involved heavy machinery used to dig in a specific spot. While it is not believed that the machinery will be used in further searches, sources claimed that a bone was discovered this morning. The alleged finding was retrieved along a drainage pipe and near a parking lot.

There has also been much talk about whether Gilbert’s disappearance might have been a result of an accident. Gilbert’s family, located in Ellenville, has claimed that they believe Shannan’s disappearance was not accidental. Gilbert lived in Ellenville before she relocated to Jersey City prior to her disappearance.

News: Police Resume Gilgo Beach Search

(Long Island, N.Y.) The search for missing person Shannan Gilbert has resumed this week. Police and investigators will pick up where they left off while searching the thick brush of the sandy dunes along Ocean Parkway. Their goal is to find out what happened to the twenty-four-year-old who disappeared on May 1st, 2010.

Authorities on the case are resuming the search after the thick foliage of spring made it difficult to navigate the rough terrain. They hope to complete their investigation before the winter’s snowfall makes it nearly impossible to search the area. New information about the case has also been revealed this week, and police and investigators are claiming that only one killer is responsible for the remains of ten victims.

It’s been reported that the fate of Gilbert is not likely related to what happened to the ten victims discovered along the parkway in the last year. The circumstances surrounding Gilbert’s disappearance were not similar to those of the other girls on the night of their murders. Authorities on the case have information linking the Gilgo Beach killer to what happened to victims over fifteen years ago.

All of the victims are believed to have worked in the sex trade, with the exception of a two-year-old girl who was linked to one of the other victims. The remains of the only male were discovered along with women’s clothing. The ages between the victims were similar, and investigators have claimed that serial killers often “evolve” to change their methods of killing.

What unites the victims is the dumping ground, which will be searched along Gilgo, Cedar, and Oak Beach. Authorities on the case assure the public that theories on a killer change as the murder investigation continues. Experts still believe the killer is likely a Long Island resident, and some of the remains found along Jones Beach last spring matched remains found at Davis Park, Fire Island in 1996.

The man Gilbert was meeting on the night of her disappearance is not a suspect and has allegedly put his beachfront house for sale at $400,000. The last person to have reportedly seen Gilbert alive, a resident in the gated Oak Beach community, has claimed that Gilbert was headed for the water after screaming for her life and likely fell before drowning; he doesn’t believe she was murdered. A vigil for the victims will be held on December 13th and is being organized by their family members and loved ones.

News: Thanksgiving Fire Injures Five

(Long Island, N.Y.) A fire that began in the back of a Brooklyn apartment caused five people to be treated for injuries. The fire, which occurred in the early afternoon of Thanksgiving Day, was likely caused by careless smoking in bed. The location of the fire was on President Street in Park Slope.

Firefighters and an emergency response team rushed to the scene between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. Reports stated that the five injured were initially listed in serious and critical conditions but were later classified to be in stable conditions. Sources claimed that a child, woman, man, and two sisters were those injured in the unexpected blaze.

According to reports, the man broke through a third floor window to escape the fire and was photographed on top of a neighbor’s awning. He was shirtless and bloodied and allegedly appeared to neighbors as a man attempting suicide. Police and authorities were quickly called to the scene and the man slipped on his own blood while shouting for help and for a baby trapped inside.

A woman also appeared at the third floor window and was rescued by emergency responders with the use of a ladder. The three others injured in the fire were brought on stretchers, including the baby. Some reports stated that the child was dressed in only a diaper and received CPR by personnel at the scene.

Sources also claimed that neighbors became alerted to the fire after hearing glass breaking and screaming. They allegedly saw white smoke coming from the windows and the top of the roof. The owner of the building had lived there for over forty years and was absent at the time of the fire.

This incident is one of many tragedies to occur on Thanksgiving Day. Last Thanksgiving, a twenty-seven-year-old man shot and killed his twenty-two-year-old ex-girlfriend. Her father was also shot and killed before the gunman took his own life.

Thanksgiving Day two years ago involved a tragedy in Florida when an uninvited family member shot and killed four people after dinner. According to reports, two sisters were murdered, one of whom was pregnant. A six-year-old girl was shot in her bedroom, days shy of her seventh birthday.

News: New Info on Medford Shooter

(Long Island, N.Y.) Information has been released concerning the drug habits of the thirty-four-year-old man responsible for killing four people in the Medford Pharmacy Shooting. Approximately ten-thousand painkillers were stolen during the robbery massacre, and sources have claimed that a large amount of pills had been given to the shooter just days prior. According to reports, the husband and wife involved in the robbery visited doctors for drug prescriptions over ten times a month.

Over twelve-thousand pain pills were filled from prescriptions given by over ten doctors in the four years leading up to the incident. In the six months that passed prior to the incident, from January to June, between four and five thousand pills had been given to the couple from various pharmacies. A bulk of the pills came from prescriptions from three different doctors, one of whom treated both husband and wife as patients without knowing that they were a married couple.

Four hundred pills from six different prescriptions and five different doctors were given to the couple during an eleven day period in the month of the shooting. Days prior, the shooter’s wife filled a prescription for over a hundred pills. According to reports, the initial pills given to the couple should have been more than enough for a four-month supply.

The thirty-four-year-old shooter filled a prescription for hydrocodone at Haven Drugs four days before he robbed the pharmacy and murdered employees and customers. One doctor, who treated the shooter’s wife, claimed that she couldn’t pay for visits but wanted the medicine anyway. According to research, there are more overdose deaths from oxycodone than there are from heroin on Long Island.

Prior to the shooting, the State Department of Health has organized a database precaution designed to allow doctors to perceive if a patient is abusing drugs. Doctors are able to see if multiple prescriptions for drugs have been given to patients by other doctors in a short period of time. Unfortunately, very few doctors use the system and much support is needed to get them to continually check patients through the search tactic.

Part of the issue is irresponsible prescribing and the existence of patient privacy laws that may discourage the exchange of information between professionals. There is also a time gap in which pharmacies don’t have to report patients to the system until the following month of the prescription process, resulting in a lack of accurate information about potential drug abusers. There is also the concern that such abusers may make it difficult for those with genuine need to obtain painkillers and prescription drugs.