Spectacular manhunt follows Crown Heights mugging

proudmom

Fri, Jun 17 2005, 12:38 pm

A spectacular manhunt Wednesday morning shook up the routine of residents on Montgomery and Crown Streets between Albany and Troy Avenues, as police searched for two young men who had just attempted to mug a woman at gunpoint.

At approximately 9:15 a.m., the victim was walking to work along Montgomery Street between Kingston and Brooklyn Avenues, when she noticed two black males across the street from her acting suspiciously. They were talking in a conspiratorial way and gave her the impression that they were eying a bicycle chained to a corner up ahead. Each wore white mesh shirts and one wore a white kerchief, or “do-rag,” over his head.

As the woman walked, one of the youths crossed the street diagonally in front of her. However, instead of continuing, he abruptly turned and rushed towards her, shouting “Give me your bag, you ….”

Hearing this, the victim grabbed for her purse. At the same time, the mugger grasped it also, and, meeting resistance, he pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger twice. However, boruch Hashem, it only clicked harmlessly.

The victim, who later described the gun as black with a little gray and having two barrels, told the Chronicle she is not a gun expert and did not know whether it was real or not. However, hearing the clicks, she assumed it was a toy and lost her fear. She remembered thinking, “You’re threatening me with this toy gun? Am I supposed to be afraid of that?” Accordingly, she grabbed her purse again and tried to wrest it from the attacker’s grasp. Unable to get it easily, the mugger let go and fled along Montgomery Street towards Kingston Avenue.

In the meanwhile, his friend, who had remained across the street, walked slowly along towards Kingston, pretending to be uninvolved in the crime.

Before the perpetrator got away, the victim saw a bochur running up from behind. Hoping to delay the attacker just long enough for help to arrive, the woman reached out and grabbed at the fleeing youth’s shirt. It tore in the struggle and the mugger escaped, leaving behind a piece of white fabric.

The bochur, Nosson Losh, 20, had been sitting on his porch in his slippers when he saw the commotion, and called to another bochur rushing to the scene to ask what was going on. Learning that a mugger was escaping, Losh kicked off his slippers and chased after the criminal, pursuing him barefoot all the way to Kingston Avenue. According to Losh, who is considerably larger than the assailant, “I was only about a foot away from him and was about to take him down when he pointed a gun at my head and said, ‘Get the hell out of here.’” At that point, Losh took cover behind a car and called police as the robber got away, first heading up Kingston Avenue, then doubling back after rejoining his partner and walking along Montgomery Street towards Albany Avenue.

The bochur, whose father, Yosef Losh, is one of the gabboim of 770, sustained cuts above the toes from his barefoot chase.

While all this was going on, the attempted robbery victim remained at the scene of the attack, screaming for help. A passing Con Edison truck backed up and offered her a cell phone with which to call police. From where she stood on Montgomery Street, she could see the criminals making their way up the road towards Albany Avenue, walking slowly, stopping people as though to ask the time, and otherwise trying to blend in; and she passed that information on to the police. Shortly thereafter, a Shomrim volunteer, Bentzion Turk, arrived on the scene and drove her to where three police cars had converged at Montgomery Street between Albany and Troy Avenues.

The robbers had disappeared, and were presumed to be hiding somewhere within the large undeveloped area, formerly the site of the Crown Palace Hotel, between Montgomery and Crown Streets. Police from the NYPD’s elite Emergency Services Unit were called in, along with a police helicopter and canine unit, and for over an hour, they searched that square block of land.

Early on, police broke down the door of the abandoned building on the corner of Crown Street and Troy Avenue, and found within two individuals: a homeless person squatting on the premises, and a young black male wearing no clothing from the waist up. The victim, who had been waiting in a police car, was brought to identify the youth. At first, she said she could not positively identify him because the person who robbed her had worn a white kerchief while this person, although of the same age and build, had an afro and no kerchief. However, police informed her that they had, in fact, also found just such a kerchief, and the woman requested that the suspect be asked to put it on. When she saw him again with the kerchief, she recognized him at once as one of her attackers, and he was arrested.

At approximately 10:30, the woman went to the 71st Precinct and filed her report, after which she finally went to work. An hour or two later, she was informed by police that the second perpetrator had been arrested as well. Each suspect, according to reports, fingered the other as the actual gunman. On Thursday, she appeared in court to press charges.

“The police tried very hard to find the muggers,” said the victim. “I especially appreciated how respectful and considerate they were to me, turning on the air conditioning in the car I was in, and in general being so sweet after my upsetting experience.”

Informed sources believe the perpetrators arrested Wednesday were the same people who mugged a 16 or 17 year old bochur at around 11:45 the previous Thursday night on Albany Avenue and President Street, and may also be responsible for the serious beating of another bochur that Shabbos on Kingston Avenue near Montgomery Street, after finding he carried no money

Tefila

Fri, Jun 17 2005, 12:41 pm

She was very lucky... she could have been raped killed both. shock

She should have just let them have her bag Exclamation

queen

Fri, Jun 17 2005, 1:06 pm

I agree 100% with freilich, but we should never be tested!

sarahd

Sun, Jun 19 2005, 2:41 am

I think her reaction (to hold onto her bag) was instinctive, not thought out as "I'm not gonna let them take my purse!" She just had a lot of mazel that the gun didn't work. Baruch Hashem.

Pickle Lady

Sun, Jun 19 2005, 11:34 am

On shabbos I spoke with the women and she said the mugger was actually 13 and had a pathetic life story.

Motek

Sun, Jun 19 2005, 2:55 pm

Pickle Lady wrote:

had a pathetic life story.

don't they all ... (or most), and therefore? maybe the Lubavitch community should help him out, do a fundraiser for him, get him back into school, etc. Twisted Evil

Pickle Lady

Sun, Jun 19 2005, 3:01 pm

It was interesting hearing it from her cause the way she talked about it she had rashmunis on this boy. She is a mother if kids around his age and I guess she saw him as a kid from a moms point of view. This is what she said and she is the one who experienced it. They all have sad stories but I think their community has to take some responsbility for these type of things.

Motek

Sun, Jun 19 2005, 3:12 pm

she could consider taking him in as a foster child Twisted Evil

sorry, I'm not feeling sympathetic (in case you didn't notice) because although his life story is undoubtedly pathetic, and it really is a rachmanus, his actions were reprehensible

I still haven't read whether the gun was real or not, and G-d forbid, a woman could miscarry from the fright of being threatened with a gun, from the whole experience.

as the Gemara says, "if you have compassion when you are supposed to be cruel, you will be cruel when you are supposed to be compassionate"

Tefila

Sun, Jun 19 2005, 5:54 pm

Quote:

as the Gemara says, "if you have compassion when you are supposed to be cruel, you will be cruel when you are supposed to be compassionate"

Yup and look at animal rights activist who will kill and destroy to prove their point on how no cruelty to animals Exploding anger

supermom

Wed, Jun 22 2005, 4:36 pm

they were jewish? shock

I thought they were non jews. shocking. what did they do to these boys at the end? the gun must have been fake as the woman said. and if she thought so that is why she didn't give up her bag for anything. the streets were that empty that no one saw what was going on except those two boys. isn't were she was attacked right near a school or something

Pickle Lady

Wed, Jun 22 2005, 8:16 pm

No the kids that did it were black. The woman attacked was jewish. Its not surprising it happened...some of these streets can be really empty. My husband was mugged in broad day light here near an extremly busy area. He was shocked to see that no one was near when he was mugged.

Pickle Lady

Wed, Jun 22 2005, 8:23 pm

Motek wrote:

she could consider taking him in as a foster child Twisted Evil

How did you know? She is already making space in her home. And the kids plan on converting cause they loves judaism so much. Wink

proudmom

Wed, Jun 22 2005, 8:43 pm

My father was also mugged in broad daylight, BH nothing happened to him. It was right across from 770

Tefila

Wed, Jun 22 2005, 10:27 pm

I was mugged as a seminary girl in broad daylight w/h another girl. B"h it was only my chai necklace, and not me Exclamation

supermom

Thu, Jun 23 2005, 3:07 pm

Motek wrote:

Pickle Lady wrote:

had a pathetic life story.

don't they all ... (or most), and therefore? maybe the Lubavitch community should help him out, do a fundraiser for him, get him back into school, etc. Twisted Evil

that is why I thought that they were jewish. by your answer motek

Tefila

Thu, Jun 23 2005, 3:25 pm

Super motek was being sarcastic 8) besides reading her post take one look at that emoticon, and that should tell u everything lol Very Happy