Twenty-Year Sentence for Killer in Decades Old Cold-Case

By DAVID GREENE

A guilty plea and a 20-year sentence in a 21-year-old, cold case murder has brought closure to the close-knit family of Elsa Grullon who was killed in the Highbridge section of the Bronx on May, 27, 1999. On Aug. 11, 2020 at Bronx Criminal Court, during the age of social-distancing amid a global pandemic, family members of Grullon finally witnessed justice being served for a crime committed at the end of the last century. Grullon, 56, was discovered over two decades ago by a family member inside her home at 825 Gerard Avenue in the South Bronx. An autopsy

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

A crew of five City lifeguards rescued a Bronx man who collapsed in knee-deep water at Orchard Beach on July 29. “We saw him wade out and suddenly he collapsed face down into the water,” said lifeguard supervisor Neil Veloz. “When we reached him and pulled him out, he had no pulse and wasn’t breathing.” Lifeguards, Andriy Kapys and Arlene Suvana, pulled the victim, Joachin Rosado, 33, from the water. Immediately, additional lifeguards, Julio Benjamin and Troy Washington, began CPR to resuscitate Rosado. However, Veloz said when they used a defibrillator, he had no shockable heart rhythm. The

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

Local residents in the Norwood section of the Bronx got down to business last Monday, Aug. 10, showing up to help clean up Williamsbridge Oval Park in response to a call from elected officials, including Bronx Borough President, Ruben Diaz Jr., City Council Member Andrew Cohen, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and State Sen. Jamaal Bailey. As reported by Norwood News, a trail of devastation, including fallen trees and branches strewn across pathways and sports courts, was left in the park after Storm Isaias struck New York City on Tuesday, Aug 4, leaving 300,000 New Yorkers without electricity, some for more than

By DAVID GREENE

An unidentified woman was injured when her blue Honda Civic collided with a taxi cab in the Norwood section of the Bronx on Sunday. Fire officials and police were called to the crash, reported at 8:56 a.m. on August 16, at the intersection of East Gun Hill Road and Dekalb Avenue in Norwood. The FDNY reported that the victim was transported by EMS to North Central Bronx Hospital. Her injuries were not believed to be life threatening. One witness said the woman suffered minor facial injuries from the deployment of her airbag, and appeared to be

By SÍLE MOLONEY & JASON GONZALEZ

As the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic continues, public officials are listening to constituents’ concerns, and walking the talk when it comes to addressing ongoing food insecurity. A number of food drives have been held all across the borough by various elected officials in recent months, and appear set to continue as Bronxites struggle to cope with the ongoing economic crisis. The New York Times reported on July 7 that “the City’s unemployment rate is hovering near 20 percent — a figure not seen since the Great Depression.” In conjunction with the Bronx Parent Housing Network (BPHN), a

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Local residents, Mahfuja Chadani, Madiha Madani and Nusrat Tasnim, took a stroll through Williamsbridge Oval Park on July 31 to celebrate the Muslim holy festival of Eid al Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice. This year, the holiday was observed from sundown on Thursday, July 30, to sundown on Friday, July 31. Chadani said typically the Muslim community have two big celebrations each year. The earlier festival of Idul-Fitr (Eid Al-Fitr) is celebrated among friends and family to mark the end of Ramadan, a month-long period during which Muslims fast during daylight hours, while offering up additional

By Síle Moloney

After a lengthy ballot count, which included an unprecedented number of absentee ballot votes, City Councilman Ritchie Torres has emerged victorious among 11 candidates in New York City’s 15th district congressional democratic primary race, winning 32.2 percent of the votes. The win, which was announced on Aug. 4, brings Torres one step closer to becoming the first LGBTQ Afro-Latino member of Congress if he wins the general election in November. Incumbent Congressman, José Serrano (D), who was first elected in 1990, did not seek re-election for the South Bronx seat, and is due to retire in the coming

By SÍLE MOLONEY

Every year, each of the City’s five boroughs hosts an arts festival at the school year’s end to celebrate and highlight student achievement in the arts, from kindergartners to high school seniors. In the Bronx, the celebration is usually held at Lehman College, with a performing arts showcase at Lehman Center, and a visual arts exhibition at the Lehman College Art Gallery. This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the exhibition, just like the Lehman College campus that hosts it, went virtual. The City’s department of education officials who produce the festivals, worked with Lehman on this year’s event.

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

Future and current generations of scholars, historians, and anyone else interested in learning how COVID-19 has affected the borough will find a well-researched resource in, “The Bronx COVID 19 Oral History Project“. The work is conducted under the auspices of Fordham University’s Bronx African American History Project. The goal of the online project, which is still ongoing, is to gather a wide variety of testimony from Bronxites, through both video and audio interviews, describing how their lives have been disrupted by the global pandemic. The student-run project is putting a face and adding a voice to the people who