Bronx
A military veteran was brutally killed yesterday in Soundview in an altercation at a home for former service members, cops said.
The victim, 54, was involved in a dispute with another resident on the third-floor, shared-kitchen area of the New Era Veterans residence on Commonwealth Avenue, near Watson Avenue, at 2:25 p.m., sources said.
The victim, whose name was being withheld pending family notification, was stabbed once in the back before staggering down a flight of stairs and collapsing in the lobby.
He was pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital.
The alleged killer, a 39-year-old who lived on the same floor as the victim, was taken into custody at the scene. Charges were pending.
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A man stalking his baby mama nearly caused an accident while tailing her car in Morris Heights, authorities said.
The woman was driving near her East 170th Street home at 7:15 p.m. on July 8 when Johnny Rodriguez, 40, pulled up in front of her, cops said.
“Get the f- – -k out of the car! I’m gonna kill you!” he allegedly screamed before smashing her vehicle’s side-view mirror.
The panicked woman threw her car in reverse, but he began chasing her, cops said.
She just missed sideswiping a parked car and hitting a pedestrian as she desperately drove the wrong way on a one-way street.
Rodriguez is also accused of harassing her with phone calls and text messages between May 19 and July 18 — when he threatened to beat her and kill her new boyfriend, according to court papers.
He was arrested on July 18 and charged with stalking, harassment and reckless endangerment.
Brooklyn
The NYPD Harbor Unit pulled a man’s body from the East River yesterday morning.
After it was spotted bobbing in the currents just south of the Brooklyn Bridge just before 8 a.m., the body was recovered near Furman and Montague streets in Brooklyn Heights.
The city Medical Examiner’s Office is to determine the cause of death.
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An uncuffed robbery suspect who skedaddled from a Sheepshead Bay station house was apprehended after four days on the lam, police said yesterday.
Thomas Davtian, 27, was picked up Saturday at a friend’s house and returned — this time in handcuffs — to the 61st Precinct.
That’s the same one he escaped from on Tuesday after being busted for allegedly burglarizing his 30-year-old girlfriend’s apartment, cops said.
The detective who initially failed to secure Davtian in the interrogation room has been suspended without pay. He is a 20-year veteran of the NYPD.
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A man smoking pot accidentally shot himself in the hand with a two-shot Derringer that he had thought was unloaded, authorities said.
Dimitris Elias, 20, had been handling the .32-caliber gun in his apartment on Fulton Street near Rochester Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant at 12:45 p.m. on July 18, police sources said.
He allegedly told cops at Kings County Hospital that he was shot in a dispute outside his building.
But a neighbor told investigators that she had seen him in the hallway after hearing a “firecracker” go off, sources said.
In addition to reckless endangerment, Elias was charged with drug possession after several baggies containing weed were found in his apartment.
Manhattan
A cashier pocketed $11,000 from the Filene’s Basement at Union Square by ringing up unauthorized cash returns, authorities said.
Jacqueline Douglas, 37, ripped off the 14th Street department store between April 9 and July 12 but was caught on surveillance video pulling off the scheme, court documents say.
She was arrested Tuesday and charged with grand larceny.
Queens
Five teens mugged a cabdriver who had just dropped them off in Elmhurst, authorities said.
Bryan Gomez, 19, Alexander Peña, 18, and three pals were picked up in front of the Queens Center Mall and driven to 61st Street and 56th Road at 2 a.m. on July 17.
When they left without paying the fare, the cabby leapt out in pursuit and the teens turned violent, cops said.
“Get his wallet!” one yelled as they allegedly shoved the driver against a car, punched him in the face and swiped his cash.
The cabby fled but returned to his car a little later to discover that his GPS had been ripped out, court papers said.
Gomez and Peña were arrested later that night and charged with robbery and criminal mischief, said a spokeswoman for DA Richard Brown.