Queens Gazette

Crime Watch For Week Of January 15



Sanitation Truck Victim, 10, Mourned
Dozens of mourners gathered at a Corona funeral home on January 11th to bid a tearful farewell to a 10-year-old boy who was struck and killed by a Department of Sanitation truck.
Srijan Panthi and his 40-year-old mother were crossing 57th Avenue near 97th Street in Corona just before 7 a.m. on January 7th when the truck pulled out of a commercial driveway near the LeFrak houses and struck them, police said.
The impact crushed the woman’s leg and mortally wounded the boy, who died at NYC Health & Hospitals/Elmhurst several hours after the accident.
Mina Panthim, unable to attend her son’s funeral, remained at Elmhurst Hospital Center, where she was scheduled to undergo additional surgery to repair her shattered leg, authorities said.
Cops said the truck struck the mother and son with such force that their shoes flew off their feet and the truck’s rear wheels rode over the boy’s chest.
The driver was not charged, but has been suspended pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation, police said.

Man Sentenced To Six-Months In Fatal Punch
A Sunnyside man has been sentenced to six months in jail in the fatal punching of a Gaelic football player early on Thanksgiving Day, 2018, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Steven O’Brien, 26, pleaded guilty in December to third-degree assault in the fatal punching of Gaelic football player, John “Danny” McGee.
According to the charges, McGee, and O’Brien, had never met until friends celebrating inside the Gaslight Tavern in Sunnyside introduced them on the night of November 21, 20018.
The two men started to argue at about 3:45 a.m. and the argument spilled outside the bar onto Queens Blvd. near 44th Street, according to the charges. O’Brien punched McGee in the head, and in a tragic turn, McGee fell backward and his head slammed on the pavement. O’Brien ran from the scene when McGee’s head hit the sidewalk.
McGee was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead as a result of blunt-force head trauma.
O’Brien surrendered to police at the 108th Precinct on the morning of November 21st, and was charged with assault. O’Brien was not charged with homicide after it became clear that he die not intentionally kill McGee.
McGee, who was born in the United States and frequently visited New York City, was a member of a well-known family from the rural village of Drumlish, Ireland. He immigrated to his Sunnyside neighborhood from Longford, Ireland in February 2018.
“This was a senseless confrontation outside a bar that ended tragically,” Katz said. “The victim’s death falls into a category of cases that have become known as a ‘one-punch homicide – where a single blow results in death and the only intent that can be proved is to cause physical injury. Under the cases governing our prosecutions ii these circumstances the highest charge the facts would support was assault in the third-degree,” Katz said.
“The family of the victim was told of the limitations of this case and understood and were supportive of this outcome.”

Blaze Destroys LIC Restaurant
Fire marshals are combing through the remains of a three-alarm blaze that gutted a well-known Chinese restaurant on January 9th, injuring one person.
Flames shot out of Xi’an Famous Foods on Jackson Avenue in Long Island City that quickly escalated to three alarms, a fire spokesperson said.
The blaze start3ed in a shaft and quickly spread to the roof of the building, forcing firefighters to break through the side walls to contain the fire, FDNY officials said. The building suffered considerable damage to the roof, leading to a partial collapse of the building, fire officials said.
More than 140 firefighters and FDNY EMS crews responded to the blaze. Fire officials said the victim was trapped inside the building when the blaze began, but he was able to escape on his own.
A second person was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of an injury he suffered in the blaze, fire officials said.
The cause remains under investigation.

Van Strikes, Kills Maspeth Woman
A 66-year-old Maspeth woman was struck and killed by a van while crossing a busy Queens intersection on Friday evening, police said.
Cops said Yulan Yu was in a crosswalk on 58th Road near the Queens Midtown Expressway in Maspeth at about 5:30 p.m. on January 10th when she was struck by a white 2020 Chevrolet Express van that was making a right turn onto 58th Street.
Lu was knocked to the ground and tumbled under the van, a police spokesperson said. “The van ran over her and dragged her for several feet before it came to a stop,” a police source said. “Eyewitnesses said at first it was like he didn’t realize he’d struck something. But he must have realized something was wrong, because he suddenly stopped,” the source said.
Lu was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she died a short while later from a serious head injury.
The 33-year-old driver remained at the scene and was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian and failure to exercise due care.

 

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