Busts at Illegal Club

Less than two days after a Norwood News article highlighted an illegal club and drug depot being run out of a North Fordham area home, police raided the place and confirmed all the neighbors’ suspicions.

For the past year, residents surrounding 2584 Briggs Ave. had complained of blatant drug use, constant traffic, late-night partying and occasional violence stemming from the house. Police tried to assure residents that they were doing something about it, but still the locals were running out of patience. The constant commotion was ruining their lives, residents said.

With that in mind, police raided the Briggs house as Friday night crept into Saturday morning, July 14. They found a club in full swing, including a full bar, DJ table and a crowd of people. Police also found a large amount of marijuana, broken up into 28 bags for distribution.

According to police, a man named Lindsay O’Neil, who said he lived at the house, was arrested and charged with running an illegal club and several alcohol and beverage laws. Another man, Luis DeJesus of Queens, was slapped with a handful of drug charges stemming from the bags of marijuana.

Police say they will be keeping a very close eye on the place, so it doesn’t start up again. They are working with the Buildings Department to shut the place down completely.

Self Inflicted Wound
A teenager, who had shot himself in the eye near the illegal club, tried to trick police into thinking he’d been shot by someone else by changing his pants on July 15.

While emergency services tended to the victim, witnesses told police that they had seen the 17-year-old go inside his home at 193rd Street and Bainbridge Avenue and change his blood-soaked pants shortly after he’d shot himself, apparently in an attempt to fool police into thinking he’d been shot by someone else.

But police searched the home to find the bloody pants and eventually the teenager confessed to having shot himself when the gun in his waist belt unexpectedly went off.

The teen was charged with gun possession, filing a false police report and reckless endangerment and was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital for treatment. His wound wasn’t serious, police said.

Elderly Man Murdered
Late on Wednesday, July 18, two Hispanic men approached a 75-year-old at his apartment door in North Fordham. They asked for money. When he refused to give them anything, they shot the man in the stomach and took his money anyway.

The shooters fled, while the elderly man lay on the floor of his Decatur Avenue apartment in agony.

Medics took him to St. Barnabas Hospital where he died five days later. Police say the investigation is ongoing.

University Heights Stabbing
Police are looking for two brothers in the brutal stabbing of a man in the basement of a University Heights apartment building.

On Saturday night, July 14, police say two brothers stabbed David Fuentes, 30, a total of 21 times. He was pronounced dead at the scene by medics. Photos of the basement apartment at 2300 University Ave. where it happened show a couch and a room splattered with blood. Fuentes lived a couple of buildings away at 2285 University Ave.

Police say the murder was probably over a drug dispute and that they have a promising lead on where to find the two brothers they suspect did the killing.

Suicide at Botanical Square
Residents of the Botanical Square apartment building on Webster Avenue woke up last Saturday morning to find the body of a 26-year-old woman resident lying on her back in the courtyard in a pool of her own blood.

Police labeled the death a suicide and say she jumped from the roof, seven stories above the pavement.

Though residents said she was planning on getting married, police say the unidentified woman had a history of depression, including a previous suicide attempt.