Police said they’ve arrested two men and are searching for three additional suspects after two other men were robbed and assaulted during an incident that began in Whalen Playground in Norwood on Sunday night, July 20.

 

Police said officers from the 52^nd Precinct were called to the vicinity of East 205th Street and Perry Avenue, where the playground is located at 7.53 p.m. on Sunday.

 

They said five assailants approached a 14-year-old male youth and a 23-year-old man inside the park, displaying knives and demanding money. They said the victims fled northbound on Perry Avenue, a scuffle ensued and the older male victim suffered a minor injury and was treated at the scene by paramedics.

 

They said the suspects were given $5 by their victims and then fled the scene on foot. Police said they later arrested and charged Ricardo Vazquez, 31, of Prospect Avenue in The Bronx and Jose Hernandez, 31, of Hull Avenue in The Bronx and said both men were charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.

Hernandez and Vazquez are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

As reported on Sunday night, further to a social media post dated July 20 around 8.20 p.m. which suggested a person or persons had been stabbed in the playground, Norwood News contacted the NYPD at the time for more information and we were informed there was no stabbing reported but that police were following up on a reported robbery in the area.

 

We visited the playground the same evening and spoke to a few different groups of people who were in the playground, as well as one driving school instructor parked in a vehicle nearby. We asked if they had any knowledge of the incident and each said they had not.

 

One older man was in one section of the playground, a younger man was in another section, a mother and child were in another section, and a group of youths were in another corner while we were there.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, on X @NYPDTips.

 

All calls are strictly confidential.