Strip club violence
Police from the 40th Precinct are keeping close watch on Sin City. The strip club on Park Ave., tucked between a taxi garage on one side and Metro North tracks and a sprawling community garden on the other, has been the site of multiple incidents of violence and theft in recent months.
There have been 14 reported incidents since Jan. 1st directly related to the club, and numerous overnight car break-ins in the vicinity police suspect may also be the handiwork of club patrons. Of those arrested, many have had prior convictions for drug dealing and other felonies, police say.
“The clientele that’s coming to the location is the worst of the worst,” said Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack, commanding officer of the 4oth Precinct, who says he deploys officers needed in other parts of Mott Haven and Melrose to patrol Park Ave. late nights to contend with the problems brought on by Sin City’s customers.
On Feb. 28th, a man left the club after a dispute with management, retrieved a 9 mm handgun from his car and returned to the bar to settle the score. Although no shots were fired, the suspect and another man took off running before police caught and arrested both men.
On March 23rd, Lincoln Hospital staff notified police a patient was being treated for a gunshot wound. Police later found he and another hospital patient receiving treatment had both been shot while clubbing at Sin City that night.
“Mott Haven does not need this,” said McCormack.
Two homicides
On April 15 at 5:15 a.m., Terrence Martin, 26, was found dead in front of 285 E. 156th St. with a bullet wound to the back of the head. No arrests have been made.
On April 16, a 16 year-old boy was beaten to death in front of 700 Morris Ave. and later pronounced dead from multiple injuries. There have been no arrests made in the case.
Cell phone snatchings
On April 18th and 19th, three cellphone thefts were reported on the corner of Lincoln Ave. and 138th St. A young man in his late teens grabbed the devices out of victim’s hands in all three incidences, one on a bus, another at the bus stop and one on the street corner.
Crime by numbers
Of the seven major categories police use to gauge crime in the city, robberies and grand larcenies have shot up over the first four months of 2012 compared with the same period last year. Robberies have increased by roughly 23 percent, from 88 to 108, while grand larcenies have risen from 60 last year to 74 this year.
However, rapes, burglaries and car theft are way down over the same period. There were 58 burglaries reported over the first four months of 2011, compared with 40 over the same period this year, while car thefts tumbled from 34 this time last year to just 20 so far this year.
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