GerritsenBeach.net

Via NY Daily News

A masked man rushed into the home of a 61-year-old woman and beat her on her kitchen floor after she opened the back door to let her cats inside, police said yesterday.

Meredith Dworkin’s husband heard her screams Thursday night, ran downstairs and tackled the intruder in the Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, home.

Howard Seidler, 61, an immigration lawyer, pulled the man’s mask off during the scuffle, which spilled out onto his deck. But Seidler, a former NYPD highway cop, couldn’t get a look at the guy in the dark.

The thug scurried off and jumped into a getaway car.

“He grabbed me and threw me on the floor,” Dworkin said from her bed at Lutheran Medical Center, where she was recovering from a collapsed lung and broken ribs.

“He just started to pound away.”

“I was yelling, ‘Help me! Please help me!’ Screaming as loud as I can for anybody to help me.”

Her husband believes the attacker is a low-level Albanian mobster who had threatened him over a green card.

“So the idea is, ‘I want my green card or give me my money back,’” Seidler said. “He told my secretary, ‘I’m going to come back Friday and kill him. I’m gonna mess up his wife.’”

Dworkin said she was in the kitchen about 10 p.m. when she saw something through the storm door.

“I went to close the storm door, but his hand was on the handle on the outside,” she said.

Seidler chased the man down Gerritsen Ave. before he hopped into a Mercedes. “I couldn’t see what the SOB looked like,” Seidler said. “That’s what kills me.”

Seidler, who records show has had run-ins with creditors and Uncle Sam over taxes, said Eastern European gangsters have sought his services ever since he freed an Albanian national from immigration detention years ago.

“Then all of a sudden here comes a guy from the Russian mob, arrested 25 times and they want me to get him out,” he said.

Police were investigating the attack yesterday. No arrests had been made.

Saturday, September 29, 2007 the Gerritsen Beach community gathered at Larry Veiling Field on Gerritsen Avenue for a softball game to raise money for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, the American Cancer Society’s annual walk. The Annual Timmy “Tub” Girardot Pagans /Women’s Softball Game is an example of how one small Brooklyn community can make a big difference in the fight against breast cancer.

I took tons of pictures of the event here on the Tim “Tub” Girardot  Pagans/Women’s Charity Softball Game Flickr Set

Police said two masked men pushed their way into a the home and attacked a 62-year-old woman. The husband, who was upstairs during the attack, ran to his wife’s defense and fought off the attackers after hearing a commotion.

Each one of the news reports has different details.

• WABC says The woman was letting her cats in when one man pushed his way in beating her and he ran off leaving a mask behind.
• WCBS says there was two men that tried to enter but ran off when they heard the husband.
• WNBC says that two men pushed their way in and the husband fought them off after hearing a commotion.

Its like the telephone game. I know what that is like.
Link Roundup

• WNBC - Woman, 62, Attacked By Masked Men In Brooklyn Home
  • Video:Masked Men Invade Brooklyn Home
• WABC - Unpleasant surprise for woman letting her cats out the house
• WCBC - Masked Men Attack 62-Year-Old Woman In Her Home
  • WCBC - Video

With all of the news about the St. Johns gunman and how the school sent out text messages alerting student to a possible danger. St. Johns was even sending those messages as the suspect was being taken into custody, telling students to stay inside and putting the school on lock down status.

That brings me to our lovely Sheepshead bay high school. Where the other day a student walked in with a loaded handgun and no one was notified. Not one single student or staff was notified. Everyone outside of the upper administration and security found out through word of mouth.

The NYPD Brooklyn Borough South truck was outside as well as an increased security presence thats when people knew something happened and started asking around.

Update: The suspect was arrested at metal detectors and had the gun in his bag. The suspect let his bag through the x-ray machine.

Police Brutality in Gerritsen Beach something serious is brewing in the old section.

On August 28th at around 6:30opm there was some sort of altercation between officers of the 61st precinct and “Frank, Christopher, and Steven“. This weekend the whole old section got plastered with posters asking for witnesses to come forward.

I did hear about something last month about this altercation but didn’t have any information to post.

The Poster Reads:

Anyone who witnessed the police brutality with the 61st precinct with Frank, Christopher, and Steven, where the police beat them for no reason at the corner of Seba and Gerritsen avenues on August 28th at approximately 6:30 PM, Please call Frank at (phone number) or (phone number) any help you can give us will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much. Please come forward we need the help of the witnesses

I will see what I can find out. This cant be good.

The Great Irish Fair is back. And in Coney Island. Where it belongs. The fair will be held this Saturday and Sunday, in the parking lot of Cyclones Stadium KeySpan Park, and this year it’s being run by Marty Cottingham who did so much to save Holy Name School and to help turn around Bishop Ford High.

And this time instead of Catholic Charities, the proceeds will be going to Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens to build up the technological infrastructure like science labs and computer rooms to make the parochial schools competitive with the city’s best private schools.

There is always great bands playing along with great food and drinks. There is also usually rides and games for the kids.

If you remember the 2006 Great Irish Fair was canceled by Margaret Keaveney, director of communications for Catholic Charities. She had said that a lack of organizers and volunteers caused the group to re-think its efforts.

We here at GerritsenBeach.Net are going to go to the fair, but just as an excuse to drink Guinness.

Printable Schedule

Saturday, September 22 2007

Sunday, September 23 2007

(more…)

Salon Siena

Notice !
” Going Out Of Business ”last day October 6th 2007

$5.00 tans any bed till oct 6th
tanning lotions sale !!!!
buy one get one free lotion….

To all of our Dearest & Valued Customers,

It is with the deepest regrets to inform you that

on: Oct. 6, 2007

we will be closing our door’s for the last time.

However we are happy & excited to announce that
Salon Siena’s New Tanning Lounge
will be Reopening for Business in the near future ( 2008 )
in: East Stroudsburg Pa.

We would like to take this time to thank everyone
for their patronage and support for the past 15 + YEARS !

Please leave your Name, Address, Phone Numbers,
And E-mail Addresses so we can contact you to inform you of our Grand Opening Date At our New Location.

Updates will be posted on our My Space Page
www.myspace.com/salonsiena

If your ever in the Pocono’s and in area we
Welcome You To A Free Tan & Lotion on Us ! !!!!!!!!!!

The claim that Anthony Foturnato, one of three men on trial for hate crime murder of a gay man, was gay himself was not only strange to most everyone - it was apparently mysterious to the judge as well! Fortunato, Ilya Shurov John Fox, and Michael Timmins had lured Michael Sandy to meet them at a secluded location in Sheepshead Bay, via a gay chatroom, in 2006. Once there, they robbed and beat Sandy, who ran into the Belt Parkway and was hit by a car. Fortunato, Shurov and Fox were charged with murder as a hate crime; Timmins agreed to a plea deal in return for testifying against the others.

• NyTimes - Sexuality as Defense Puzzles Judge
• Towleroad - Defense: Screen Names, Sexuality, Suicide at Michael Sandy Trial
• Gothamist - Judge Wonders About Hate Crime Defendent’s Strategy

Image of Fortunato from Towleroad, who has been following the Michael Sandy murder

Via Matt Sollars

Here is a video from someone who was actually at the healing field on September 11th. Im glad people toughed it out to be there in the rain.

Via the Ny Times and GayCityNews

One of the defendants accused of killing a gay man in Brooklyn last year because of his sexual orientation offered a startling courtroom revelation yesterday: He, too, is gay.

So said the lawyer for Anthony Fortunato, 21, one of four men accused of chasing a gay man to his death on the Belt Parkway during a robbery on Oct. 8, 2006.

Check out the articles above