Brooklyn
A thief scammed two elderly women in separate incidents in the same Coney Island building, authorities said.
The suspect first struck on Christmas Eve when he followed an 88-year-old woman into her building on Beach 7th Street at around 3 p.m. before claiming to be her upstairs neighbor, cops said.
The scoundrel proceeded to tell the woman that water from his apartment was leaking down into her apartment, and that he needed to be let inside in order to survey and pay for any damages, cops said.
Once inside, the thief snatched $2,200 in cash, gold rings, a necklace, and a bracelet, police said.
The suspect pulled the same scam on Jan. 19 when he victimized an 89-year-old woman and stole $170, a necklace, ring and earrings, police said.
He was last seen wearing glasses, a ski hat, and a waist length jacket. He may also speak Russian, authorities said.
Cops nabbed a man who allegedly fatally gunned down his sister’s boyfriend in Coney Island last month.
Johnny Velez Garriga, 23, fled to Pennsylvania after he allegedly killed Shawn White, 25, on Dec. 26, sources said.
The couple had just returned to their apartment from dinner around 9:30 p.m. when Garriga approached his sister and her beau in the lobby of their building on West 27th Street near Surf Avenue in the Bernard Haber Houses, the sources said.
Garriga allegedly pointed the gun in his sister’s face and said, “You f–king bitch! You violated me!” before shooting White multiple times, sources said.
White was later found by police lying face down in a pool of blood inside the building’s staircase with gunshot wounds to both knees, the buttocks and torso, according to police sources.
Investigators traced Garriga to Pennsylvania, where he was taken into custody on Dec. 30, cops said.
In October 2009, Garriga was arrested for felony sale of a controlled substance to an undercover police officer, the sources said.
He has multiple prior arrests which were sealed, cops said.
Police have arrested two of the three suspects wanted in the murder of a bodega worker in East New York earlier this month, authorities said.
Ahmed Jones, 30, was arrested Tuesday for his part in the cold-blooded Jan. 10 killing, when he and two accomplices were spotted walking into 797 Deli and Grocery on Stanley Avenue, cops said.
Soon after the men were caught on a surveillance tape, cops found deli worker Hisham Zidan, 55, dead inside the bodega’s bathroom with cuts and bruises on his head.
The cash register was on the floor with change scattered around it.
The store’s security system was missing, but the suspects were captured on a surveillance system across the street, cops said.
Police also nabbed Amir Alawadi, 19, on Jan. 13 in connection with the slaying.
He and Jones are charged with murder and burglary.
Police are still searching for the third suspect.
A man was stabbed to death in Crown Heights, authorities said.
The 35-year-old victim was found with a wound to the head inside a home on St. John’s Place near Brooklyn Avenue around 2:20 p.m. Thursday, police said.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
No arrests have been made and police have no suspect description.
The victim’s name was not released because his family had not been notified.
Manhattan
Two thieves stole the tip jar from a Hell’s Kitchen coffee shop while one of them was pretending to apply for a job, law enforcement sources said.
The pair walked into Kahve on Ninth Avenue near West 52nd Street at around 6:30 p.m. Jan. 13. The female thief walked up to the counter with a resume and said she wished to apply for a job.
When the employee turned her back momentarily, the woman’s male accomplice snatched the tip jar containing around $50 before the two fled.
Queens
A man is wanted for robbing an Astoria liquor store, authorities said.
The masked suspect walked into Doctors Wine and Spirits on Ditmars Boulevard near 47th Street at around 8:30 p.m. last Friday and ordered the clerk at gunpoint to hand over the money inside the register, cops said.
The employee complied and handed over about $800 in cash and the thief fled on foot.
He is described as being 6-foot-2 with a slim build and was last seen wearing a grey or blue hooded sweatshirt and a black ski mask, cops said.