This Day In History

Dec 22 1984
Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 teenage boys on the NYC subway after one of them tells him to give him five dollars.

Dec 22 1996
An alien cadaver of height 5 centimeters is found at the Kibbutz Achihod, Ahyud Israel. Scientists at Israel's Technion Institute in Hafnia determine that not enough material is present to conduct "proper tests" but the alien's composition is chiefly cow manure.

Dec 22 2001
Richard Reid attempts to blow up an American Airlines transatlantic flight by igniting a plastic explosive concealed in his shoe. Other passengers beat the living daylights out of him.

Madoff Son Found Dead of Apparent Suicide

ABC- Two years to the day, and almost the precise hour and minute, of his father's arrest by the FBI, Mark Madoff, son of the disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, was found hanged inside his Manhattan apartment, an apparent suicide according to police.

Madoff had reportedly learned in the last week that he faced possible criminal charges in both London and New York.

Madoff left behind several emails, including one to his wife, Stephanie, telling her that he loved her, but no explanation of why he chose to take his life.

"I love you," the email said. "... send someone to take care of Nick."

In a separate email to his lawyer Martin Flumenbaum, Mark Madoff wrote, "No one wants to hear the truth take care of my family," according to law enforcement sources

He also sent one to his wife and to his father-in-law asking that someone come to get the couple's two-year-old child.

Upon receiving the emails, which were written in the early morning hours after 4 a.m., Stephanie, who reportedly was in Florida with at least one of the couple's other children, contacted her father. He came to the apartment and found his son-in-law hanged in the living room around 7:30 a.m. Saturday, police said. The two-year-old was sleeping peacefully in a bedroom nearby, police sources said.

Madoff had used a black dog leash to hang himself, police said. His labradoodle, Grouper, was found nearby unharmed.

"At about 7:30 this morning police responded to 158 Mercer Street," said New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly. "Mark Madoff was found hanging from a pipe in the living room of the apartment. Mr. Madoff apparently left some email notes. There was no note at the scene, but [he] communicated with members of the family."

Madoff's body has been moved to the Medical Examiner's office in Manhattan, and an autopsy is expected tomorrow.

According to sources close to the family no one could have seen the suicide coming, although Madoff, 46, had been distraught, felt unemployable, and was sure that he would never be able to extricate himself from the thickets of notoriety.

"If he asked the question, 'Would my wife and children be better off without me?' the answer would probably be yes,' '' said one person familiar with his circumstances.

Madoff and his children were being sued for all of their wealth and he faced the prospect of criminal prosecution in two countries.

Madoff's wife Stephanie had filed papers earlier this year to change her last name and the name of her son from Madoff to Morgan.

He had put his Nantucket home up for sale this summer for $7.5 million. It's still listed as being up for sale, but the price has been dropped to $7 million.

According to a source familiar with Mark Madoff, in the last two days leading up to the anniversary Mark had become "very distressed" due to media coverage and the lawsuits filed by the bankruptcy trustee seeking to recover funds for Madoff victims. He was "not handling it very well," said the source.

Martin Flumenbaum of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, an attorney representing Mark and Andrew Madoff, stated: "Mark Madoff took his own life today. This is a terrible and unnecessary tragedy. Mark was an innocent victim of his father's monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo. We are all deeply saddened by this shocking turn of events."

Ira Sorkin, Bernie Madoff's attorney, said, "This is a great tragedy at many different levels."

Two years ago, shortly after his father summoned him to his posh upper East Side Manhattan home to disclose the $60 billion Ponzi scheme that has cost so many their life's savings, he told friends that despite his own involvement in his father's business affairs, he was stunned when he learned of the scam. His lawyer had instructed him to have no communication at all with his father, or with his mother, Ruth Madoff, who Mark Madoff is said to have considered "an enabler."

Eleanor Squillari, Bernie Madoff's long-time personal secretary who has always believed the sons were innocent, was in tears this morning on learning the news.

"I have a hard time believing this. Mark was so sweet. He was a wonderful person and I cared about him very much. This doesn't seem like the Mark we knew."

The trustee appointed by the court to recover funds for Madoff investment fraud victims, Irving Picard, had filed numerous lawsuits against Mark and other Madoff family members seeking to recover billions.

In a statement, Picard said that Mark Madoff's death "is a tragic development and my sympathy goes out to Mark Madoff's family."

On Thursday, Picard named Mark Madoff and other family members as respondents in an $80 million suit filed against Madoff Securities International Ltd. (MSIL), the London office of the Madoff investment company.

The deadline for Picard to file suits is today at midnight.

The Bureau of Prisons cited privacy concerns in declining to answer whether Bernie Madoff had been notified of his son's death. Officials told ABC News that normally the notification would be made by staff members at the institution housing the inmate. In Madoff's case, BOP policy allows an inmate at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina to be considered for a furlough or an escorted trip to the funeral. But it is by no means guaranteed that a request by Madoff would be granted.

Madoff gave a surprisingly early Christmas bonus and card to the workers at the garage where he parked his black Range Rover.

Garage worker Claudio Siguencia told ABC News he was surprised when Mark Madoff came to the garage on Thursday and gave him a card that said "Merry Christmas from Mark and Stephanie" and a $400 check. Claudio, who said Madoff seemed "sad," was a generous tipper who usually gave his bonus just a few days before Christmas.

Siguencia said Madoff gave him a hug Friday night and said, "Goodbye."

Nikolay Reva, a salesmen at the Prada store near the family's apartment, said Mark Madoff and family often shopped at the store and that Madoff was down and depressed after his father's Ponzi scheme unraveled.

"You can see the person deteriorating after after what happened," said Reva. "He was still friendly just wasn't as talkative."

Reva said the Madoffs had stoped coming into the store as regularly two years ago.

"They were very nice people -- very genuine," said Reva. "He was very friendly. My associate is crying right now."

"I don't think it's the last of this tragedy," said Nick Casale, a former senior NYPD official who provided security for Mark Madoff after his father's arrest.

Tickets to... The View!

Well, I'm real cheezy.


My mom obtained tickets to a show that I ordinarily don't watch... The View! But hey, I might come home with some good gifts and prizes.

My mom looked it up and saw that Jackie Evancho is going to be performing.. Well, she didn't know who she was, and either did I until I googled her- now I remember who she is! She has some amazing ability!

I've watched America's Got Talent only a few times, but seen how she stole the show- is this show's season already over? Did she win? If not, I'm sure she will.. Kind of look forward to her singing Monday morning, even though I need to wake up at 4:30 am to be able to take the train to the city in time.. :P

I look forward to seeing Whoopi the most- she's awesome. Joy Behar can be really funny also, so this should be awesome!

Conservatives Call for Ground Zero Mosque Protest

(CNN) -- Conservative bloggers called for a protest Sunday against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

"Building the Ground Zero mosque is not an issue of religious freedom, but of resisting an effort to insult the victims of 9/11 and to establish a beachhead for political Islam and Islamic supremacism in New York," the group "Stop the Islamicization of America" says on its website.

"Ground Zero is a war memorial, a burial ground. Respect it," says the group, which is run by conservative blogger Pamela Geller.

"No one's telling them they can't. We're asking them not to," Geller told CNN's Joy Behar recently.

"We feel it would be more appropriate maybe to build a center dedicated to expunging the Quranic texts of the violent ideology that inspired jihad, or perhaps a center to the victims of hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars, land enslavements, cultural annihilation and mass slaughter," Geller said.

She's anticipating about 1,000 people will show up, she told CNN by e-mail Sunday.

The project calls for a 13-story community center including a mosque, performing art center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.

It is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

The Cordoba Initiative aims to improve relations between Muslims and the West.

"The Cordoba Initiative hopes to build a $100 million, 13-story community center with Islamic, interfaith and secular programming, similar to the 92nd Street Y," its website says, referring to the cultural institution on the upper East side of Manhattan.

Daisy Khan of the American Society for Muslim Advancement told CNN it was a "community center with a prayer space inside."

She said the project was an opportunity for American Muslims living in New York to "give back" to the community.

"There is a lot of ignorance about who Muslims are. A center like this will be dedicated to removing that ignoranceand it will also counter the extremists because moderate Muslims need a voice," she told CNN. "Their voices need to be amplified."

Local political leaders turned out in support of the community last month after Mark Williams of the conservative Tea Party Express reportedly said the mosque was for "the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god."

"To make room for peace there can be no room for hatred, bigotry or prejudice," council member Robert Jackson said at the May 20 demonstration.

The project has the backing of the Community Board of lower Manhattan. It does not require city permission to go ahead.

The plan has split people touched by the September 11 attacks.

"Lower Manhattan should be made into a shrine for the people who died there," said Michael Valentin, a retired city detective who worked at ground zero. "It breaks my heart for the families who have to put up with this. I understand they're [building] it in a respectful way, but it just shouldn't be down there."

Others such as Barry Zelman said the site's location will be a painful reminder.

"(The 9/11 terrorists) did this in the name of Islam," Zelman said. "It's a sacred ground where these people died, where my brother was murdered, and to be in the shadows of that religion, it's just hypocritical and sacrilegious. "

But Marvin Bethea, who was a paramedic at ground zero, said it was "the right thing to do."

"I lost 16 friends down there. But Muslims also got killed on 9/11. It would be a good sign of faith that we're not condemning all Muslims and that the Muslims who did this happened to be extremists," he said. "As a black man, I know what it's like to be discriminated against when you haven't done anything."

Time Sqaure Bombrer Has Taliban Ties

Washington (CNN) -- Investigators believe that Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad had ties to TTP, a Pakistani Taliban group, a senior law enforcement official and a U.S. intelligence official said Thursday.

The law enforcement official said the extent of Shahzad's involvement with TTP has not been determined and could range from communications to training, and does not necessarily mean that TTP directed the attack.

TTP released a video making a claim of responsibility for the attack on a website established the day before the failed bombing attempt, but a spokesman for TTP has denied any connection with the 30-year-old Pakistani-American.

A U.S. official said earlier in the day that connections to TTP were "plausible," but noted that numerous connections among insurgent groups in Pakistan made it difficult to zero in on a single responsible group.

The advance came shortly after a senior U.S. official said that new leads developed from the Pakistani end of the investigation show Shahzad likely had training in Pakistan from extremists. The official has direct knowledge of discussions between senior U.S. and Pakistani officials about the case.

"Did he receive help in Pakistan? Yes he did," said the official. The official said Shahzad is believed to have received training of some sort but would not say if the training was specific to the Times Square bombing attempt.

The official and another U.S. official said investigators had not concluded from which group Shahzad may have received help.

Also Thursday, a high-level team of U.S. and Pakistani investigators grilled Shahzad's father and interrogated four people linked to a notorious Pakistani militant group, intelligence officials said.

The interrogators questioned Bahar Ul Haq in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar. The retired senior Pakistani air force officer is the father of Shahzad.

Ul Haq -- who lives in the Peshawar suburb of Hayatabad -- was neither detained nor arrested, the source said.

Another official said the team was also questioning four men suspected of having links to the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Banned in Pakistan, the group's aim is to unite the disputed territory of Kashmir with Pakistan and to expel foreign troops from Afghanistan, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. It is also close to al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. India and Pakistan have had disputes over Kashmir for decades.

Shahzad told investigators he recently received bomb-making training in the Waziristan area of Pakistan, sources said. North and South Waziristan are regions in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas; both border Afghanistan.

Officials said they suspect that Shahzad may be part of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group fighting Pakistani forces. While the Pakistani Taliban has praised Shahzad in the wake of the failed bombing, it has denied a link to the man.

In recent days, authorities in Pakistan have rounded up a number of people for questioning.

One was Muhammed Rehan, an alleged associate of Shahzad who allegedly has links to Jaish-e-Mohammed, a senior Pakistani official said. Rehan allegedly was instrumental in making possible a meeting between Shahzad and at least one senior Taliban official, the official said.

The official said that Rehan drove Shahzad on July 7 to Peshawar. At some point, they headed to the Waziristan region, where they met with one or more senior Taliban leaders, the official said.

Several officials in Karachi said Rehan was picked up in Karachi's North Nazimabad district. They said others were taken into custody for questioning on Wednesday, but they could not say how many, who they were or where they were seized.

It was not clear if Rehan was one of the four with alleged Jaish links being questioned on Thursday.

Others taken in for questioning include Iftikhar Mian, the father-in-law of the suspect, and Tauseef Ahmed, a friend of Shahzad. They were picked up in Karachi on Tuesday, two intelligence officials said.

Meanwhile, efforts to determine what may have motivated the suspect continued. An official familiar with the investigation said Wednesday that Shahzad felt Islam was under attack.

Any grudge Shahzad may have held against the United States appears to have developed recently, according to a senior U.S. official who is familiar with the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly.

The investigation has found nothing to indicate that Shahzad had any long-standing grudge or anger toward the United States, the official said.

In Connecticut, where Shahzad was living, a prominent member of the Pakistani-American community said Thursday that he had maintained a low profile and appeared to have become more religious over the past year.

CNNMoney: Faisal Shahzad's $65,000 home equity piggy bank

"He was somebody who was under the radar; he was never a part of our community, never a part of our events or meetings," said Dr. Saud Anwar, founder and past president of the Pakistani American Association of Connecticut.

After news broke about the suspect, the pulmonologist sent out e-mails to others in the community to dredge up what he could about Shahzad.

"As a physician, I look at it as a disease," Anwar said of Shahzad's apparent radical turn. "I try to understand what led to the disease ... how we can prevent a disease like this."

Anwar said his e-mails turned up a man who studied with Shahzad at the University of Bridgeport and had stayed in touch with him since then, but does not want to be identified publicly.

"He recalled him as a regular individual, outgoing, interacting with people, interested to learn, not isolated," Anwar said.

But, in the past year or so, "he felt there was a change in his personality," Anwar said, explaining that Shahzad appeared to become introverted, asocial and "a little bit more religious."

Anwar added, "There was a little anger in there. [The friend] felt [Shahzad] was looking at things as true black and white."

Returning to his disease analogy, the physician said that, after Shahzad returned from Pakistan early this year, "The disease became a little bit more progressive, much stronger."

Shahzad told his friend that, as a Pakistani-American, he was looking for work in the Middle East "because he was having challenges with his job over here," Anwar said.

"He just mentioned that he was seeking something. I don't know if he found anything or not."

Shahzad has admitted he drove a Nissan Pathfinder into Times Square on Saturday night and attempted to detonate the vehicle, which was packed with gasoline, propane tanks, fireworks and fertilizer, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York.

The previous day, he carried out a dry run, parking his Isuzu SUV on West 38th Street between 9th and 10th avenues a few blocks from Times Square to be used the following day as a getaway car, a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation told said.

But on Saturday, after he left the smoking Pathfinder on West 45th Street just west of Broadway and walked to the Isuzu, he realized he didn't have the Isuzu keys, the source said. So he headed to Grand Central Terminal and boarded a train to Connecticut.

Two store owners on West 38th Street said they had turned over surveillance tapes to authorities at their request.

After a 53-hour police manhunt, Shahzad was arrested late Monday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport after boarding a flight bound for Dubai, United Arab Emirates. His final destination was to have been in Pakistan.

Read complaint filed in federal court Tuesday (PDF)

He has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, and three other counts in connection with the incident. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

Makes Me MAD!

This is in response to this article: [Abandoned truck on bridge not a threat, NYPD says]

Newly Released 9/11 NYPD Photos Show WTC Collapse

NEW YORK – Newly released aerial photos of the World Trade Center terror attack capture the towers' dramatic collapse, from just after the first fiery plane strike to the apocalyptic dust clouds that spread over lower Manhattan and its harbor.

The images were taken from a police helicopter — the only photographers allowed in the air space near the towers on Sept. 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which investigated the collapse.

The chief curator of the planned Sept. 11 museum, which is compiling a digital archive of attack coverage, said the still images are "a phenomenal body of work" that show a new, wide-angle look at the towers' collapse and the gray dust clouds that shrouded the city afterward.

The photos are "absolutely core to understanding the visual phenomena of what was happening," said Jan Ramirez, chief curator at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

The images of the dust clouds rising as high as some downtown skyscrapers "are some of the most exceptional images in the world, I think, of this event," Ramirez said.

ABC said the NIST gave the network 2,779 pictures on nine CDs, saying some of the photographs had never been released before.

The network posted 12 photos this week on its Web site, all taken by ex-NYPD Aviation Unit Detective Greg Semendinger, who was first in the air in a search for survivors on the rooftop. He said he and his pilot watched the second plane hit the south tower from the helicopter.

"We didn't find one single person. It was surreal," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "There was no sound. No sound whatsoever, but the noise of the radio and the helicopter. I just kept taking pictures."

He took three rolls of film with his Minolta camera, plus 245 digital shots. Semendinger said he gave the digital images to the 9/11 Commission and believes those images were released by the NSIT. In the days after the attack, he e-mailed some of the photos to friends and several were posted on the Internet.

Later, nine of the images were published in a book called "Above Hallowed Ground: A Photographic Record of Sept. 11" without his consent. The book was a tribute to the officers who were killed that day.

The photos capture the enormous scope of the dust that enveloped the area.

In some images, the tops of the nearby Woolworth Building and other skyscrapers can be seen rising above the billowing dark plume against a clear blue sky. Buildings can hardly be seen at all in one image — just a burst of dust clouds hanging over the serene Hudson River at the southern tip of Manhattan.

A close-up image from earlier in the morning shows orange flames and black smoke rising past the antenna on top of the north tower, the first hit by a hijacked plane.

Ramirez said the museum, which is slated to open in 2012, saw a selection of the photos at police headquarters several years ago.

They are extremely important because the NYPD aviation unit had the clearance to be up in the air in lower Manhattan only "moments after the first tower was hit," and stayed in the area for the remainder of the day, she said.

Sometime after 10 a.m., she said they were able to "predict that the north tower was going to fall." It did just before 10:30 a.m.

The museum hopes to get a complete set of the photos.

"We've had our sights set on this body of visual evidence for several years," Ramirez said.

Semendinger retired from the NYPD in 2002 after 35 years, 20 of them in aviation. He said he has thought about publishing his work from those days.

"I almost didn't realize what I was seeing that day," he said. "Looking at it now it's amazing I took those pictures. The images are ... stunning."

Man Who Jumps on Subway Track for Music Player Gets Hit and Killed by Train

NYDailyNews- A man was struck and killed by a subway train Monday when he dropped his digital music player on the tracks and jumped down to get it, police said.

The victim, identified only as a 39-year-old Hispanic male from Washington Heights, was so badly dismembered that crews were still cleaning up the Central Park West and 110th St. station hours after the accident on the B line.

Witnesses said they saw the victim agitated and shouting at someone on his cell phone about 7:40 p.m.

Police said he dropped his music player on the tracks during the heated conversation. "It was an accident," said a police source. "He went on the tracks for his MP3 player, picked it up, and stood up just in time for the train to hit him head on and drag him. He just wasn't quick enough," the source said.

The victim's name was withheld until his next of kin were notified. Uptown trains bypassed the station for more than two hours.

This Is Why the World IS A Scary Place..

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A 24-year-old Colorado resident and Afghan national who is a suspect in an alleged terrorist plot in the United States has admitted to having ties to al Qaeda, an administration official familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday.

Either a plea deal or charges are possible for the man, identified as Najibullah Zazi, the official said.

A spokeswoman for Zazi's attorney said Zazi began meeting in Denver with the FBI at 9 a.m. Friday for the third consecutive day, and was still there by nightfall. Zazi's father Mohammed met for three hours Friday afternoon with the FBI, then returned to his home.

The alleged terrorist plot, which came to light this week after raids in New York, may have been targeting a major transportation center, such as a large railroad or subway station, sources close to the investigation told CNN on Thursday.

There were plans for an attack, presumably in the New York area, where crowds are large and security screening for travelers who are not flying is lax, the sources said.

"While DHS and FBI have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to remind transit authorities to remain vigilant," the Department of Homeland Security said Friday in a written statement.

Two sources familiar with the investigation said that Zazi had video of New York's Grand Central Terminal, a massive junction of rail and subway lines, as well as shops and restaurants, through which pass a half-million people per day.

A former counterterrorism official briefed on the investigation said bomb instructions were found but could not say where. (rest of article)

HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY THANK YOU... FOR PLANNING TO KILL OUR INNOCENT, OUR WOMEN, OUR CHILDREN, OUR BABIES?

Plane Lifted From Hudson; Final 2 Bodies Recovered

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of the final two of nine victims of Saturday's collision between a helicopter and small plane over the Hudson River, police said.

"They were inside the wreckage when we pulled it up," said New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.

Earlier Tuesday, police divers had attached chains and straps to the plane's fuselage and used a crane to lift it from the riverbed 60 feet below the surface.

On Saturday, the Piper PA-32 Saratoga carrying three people collided with a helicopter carrying six people, five of them Italian tourists, killing all nine people aboard both aircraft.

The wreckage of the helicopter, operated by Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, was lifted Sunday nearly intact from the Hudson.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision, which occurred shortly after the helicopter took off from a heliport in Midtown Manhattan on what was to have been a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York.

The Piper took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and was bound for Ocean City, New Jersey. It began its flight Saturday morning at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-area airfield.

Que Idiota.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Authorities evacuated LaGuardia Airport's Central Terminal for several hours Saturday after a man with a bag containing wires and a battery entered the airport, a Port Authority spokesman said.

The man is in custody, and authorities have allowed passengers back into the terminal, Port Authority spokesman John Kelly said.

Kelly said there were delays at the airport hours after the incident.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation identified the man as Scott McGann, 32, of New York. He had tickets on a United Airlines flight to Chicago, as well as connecting flights that would have ended in Oakland, California.

The law enforcement source said the suspect approached a security checkpoint in the Central Terminal carrying a backpack.

"Affixed to the backpack in plain view were two six-volt square batteries taped together with wires protruding from the battery," the source said.

"McGann was told by Port Authority police not to move. He didn't comply and looked to try to push a switch and nothing happened," the source said.

The backpack also contained unspecified electronic devices and personal items, the source said.

McGann has three prior arrests in the New York area, the source said. The most recent involved June charges of tampering with evidence and resisting arrest. He was also arrested twice in 2008, the source said.

New York Police Department's Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne had told CNN earlier that the man, whom he did not identify, raised the suspicions of a Transportation Security Administration employee because he appeared "intoxicated."

Kelly, who also didn't identify the man, had said he "was just acting crazy," and offered no further details.

The city's bomb squad was called in to examine the device, Browne said, and determined that it was not dangerous.

"It was a hoax device," he said.

Asked whether the man had said anything about a bomb, Browne said, "Clearly, it appeared he wanted people to think that's what he had."

Authorities evacuated the terminal after 5:20 a.m., and allowed passengers back in to all areas except Concourse C by midmorning, Kelly said. The concourse was reopened shortly before 11 a.m., according to Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker. iReport: Watch crowds start moving back into the terminal

Authorities had stopped flights from taking off or landing at the airport, but by a little after 9 a.m., flights were slowly resuming, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said.

Baker said flights were expected to be back to normal in a few hours.

It was not known how many passengers were in the terminal at the time of the evacuation, although scores of them with luggage lined the roads outside the airport after the terminal and entrances were closed.

Central Terminal is one of four terminals in the airport, which is in the borough of Queens. It is about eight miles from Manhattan.

The incident disrupted travel plans for many passengers, including CNN iReporter Jose Ojeda, 24, who had been sitting on the tarmac on a plane headed to Chicago, Illinois, when the evacuation was ordered.

"We were all ready to go," Ojeda, of Bronx, New York, said of his flight, which he said had been scheduled to leave at 6:10 a.m.

"They didn't make any announcement other than, 'You need to evacuate,'" he said. "I thought it was standard procedure, but then once we got out of the plane, they kept pushing us back and back, out of the terminal [and] out of the actual airport."

Brooklyn Day Care Center in Shootout a Drug House in Disguise, Police Say

NY Daily News: Upstaris tots. Downstairs, pot.

Armed bandits targeted a Brooklyn day care center where the owners ran a drug den in thebasement, with a 10-pound marijuana stash and more than $100,000 incash, police said Saturday.

Day care owner Donna Rogers, 37, and her husband, Sherwin, 36, were arrested for felony marijuana possessio none day after kids at their East Flatbush business slept through a wild gunfight between cops and robbers.

"Obviously, they were doingmore than just taking care of children," said Police CommissionerRaymond Kelly. "It appears they were also dealing drugs at thislocation."

Sherwin Rogers surrendered to the 67th Precinct aftercops - tipped by a seriously wounded suspect - returned to the day care Saturday and found the drugs and money hidden in a closet, Kelly said.

Thecouple lived in the basement, where neighborhood crooks knew they stashed large amounts of pot. And Friday's robbery was timely - it waspay day and pot was being delivered.

Next-door neighbor Grant Frierson, 70, wasn't surprised by the arrest - Rogers and her husbandhad recently purchased two new cars. But he was disgusted by the daycare ruse.

"Keeping all that cash and drugs under the same roof as those kids is just despicable," Frierson said. "Looks like thosekids were a coverup."

About a dozen children, ages 1 to 10, werenapping inside the Special Moments Day Care Center on Friday when therobbers - posing as parents - entered the facility, a police sourcesaid.

A pair of plainclothes officers from the 67th Precinctreached the robbery in progress to find a roomful of kids and one adult: Gavin Nugent, with a 9-mm. Glock in his hand.

Nugent, 34,was shot after pointing the loaded gun at police. The bleeding suspect ran from the day care to the basement, but was too big to shimmythrough a window to freedom, a police source said.

Nugent finally dropped his weapon after police shot him a second time. He was instable condition at Kings County Hospital Saturday with gunshot woundsto the chest and wrist, Kelly said.

The initial confrontation was captured on videotape. Although police fired four times, the video showed the children sleeping innocently through the gunfire.

Nugentand career criminal Dwayne Jackson, 35, were arrested at the scene andcharged with burglary, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.

Their alleged lookout man, 37-year-old Carl Grierson, was also busted Friday. Police initially believed the armed robbers intended to steal the daycare's payroll until Nugent squealed on the drug operation.

Such a Horrible Way To Leave- Martha Mansfield

On November 30, 1923, while working on the film The Warrens of Virginia, Mansfield was severely burned when a match, tossed by a cast member, ignited her Civil War costume of hoopskirts and flimsy ruffles. Mansfield was playing the role of Agatha Warren, and had just finished her scenes and retired to a car, when her clothing burst into flames. Her neck and face were saved when leading man, Wilfred Lytell, threw his heavy overcoat over her. The chauffeur of Mansfield's car was burned badly on his hands while trying to remove the burning clothing from the actress. The fire was put out but she sustained substantial burns to her body.

She was rushed to a hospital where she died in less than twenty-four hours. Mansfield was 24 years old.

Accompanied by actor Phillip Shorey, Mansfield's body was flown to her home in New York City. Her mother resided there at 142 West Fifty-seventh Street. She was interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York, United States.

Mom Arrested After Performing Voodoo Fire On Daughter

<-- Click for video..

NEW YORK (WPIX) - A Queen's mom is accused of setting her six-year-old daughter on fire in a bizarre voodoo ritual that left the girl severely burned, authorities said.

Marie Lauradin, 29, a Haitian immigrant, apparently ignored little Frantzcia Saintil's screams as flames engulfed her body during the Feb 4. ritual, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Frantizcia's grandmother, 70-year-old Sylvenie Thessier, reportedly came to her aide and extinguished the flames.

Instead of taking Frantzcia to the hospital, prosecutors say the pair, instead, sent the girl to bed, where she remained for a day before relatives begged them to take the girl to the hospital.

According to court papers, when Lauradin finally sought medical assistance for her daughter, doctors determined Frantzcia had suffered second and third-degree burns covering 25% of her body, including her face torso and legs.

Lauradin, who has been in the U.S for less than a year, was charged in Queens Criminal Court with assault and endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, she faces up to 25 years behind bars.

According to police, Lauradin sprayed a circle of rum on the floor around her daughter and lit it on fire. She then poured some alcohol on the girl's head and pushed her into the ring of flames.

Initially, Lauradin reportedly told police she was boiling rice in a pot and accidentally spilled it on her daughter.

Her attorney Jeff Cohen said she is completely innocent of the allegations.

"This is my client's only child," Cohen told the New York Daily News. "My client would not hurt her."

Thessier is facing charges of reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. She faces up to seven years in jail.

Bringing ON the Crazy!

Anderson Cooper 360- The elderly woman in oversized sunglasses hunches over a desk at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Brooklyn, New York.

Dressed in red and holding a pen, she fills out the required information to renew her license. A surveillance camera takes a snapshot of the seemingly routine matter.

It all appears normal.

Except for one glaring fact: the woman is a man.

And, according to investigators, that man is posing as his own dead mother in what Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes called “a multi-year campaign of fraud that was unparalleled in its scope and brazenness.”

Brazen and bizarre.

Authorities say Thomas Parkin impersonated his mother since her death in September, 2003. They believe a friend of Parkin’s, Mhilton Rimolo, was his partner in crime in a long-running scam of deception and fraud.

Parkin, 49, and 47-year-old Rimolo are charged with multiple counts of Grand Larceny, Conspiracy, Forgery, Perjury and Criminal Impersonation.


For veteran investigators, the case is as wild as they come. “It’s a nice twist, right?” said Assistant Chief Investigator George Terra. “Truth is truly stranger than fiction. You can’t make these things up.”

The indictment alleges Parkin and Rimolo spent years trying to convince city agencies and courts that Irene Prusik was very much alive. After her death in 2003, they are accused of filing lawsuits, claiming to be Prusik, against the new owner of her home which was previously sold at auction.

The lawsuits were allegedly accompanied by some creative writing.

In a media release, the District Attorney’s Office said the pair “doctored Prusik’s death certificate, providing a false Social Security Number and date of birth, which made it appears though she were still alive.”

For prosecutors, the reason behind the ruse was money.

Parkin and Rimolo allegedly collected $52,000 in Prusik’s Social Security benefits over the years. The indictment also accuses the defendants of receiving $65,000 in rental assistance from the city by claiming Prusik was the landlord of the home and that Parkin could not afford the rent because of a disability.

Authorities say Parkin didn’t just pretend to be his mom. He dressed as her. In addition to the DMV appearance, prosecutors described an encounter to remember.

According to detectives, Parkin walked into the D.A.’s Office to complain he and his mother were being victimized and coerced by the new owner of Prusik’s townhouse. Investigators, who were already suspicious of Parkin, set up a meeting in his apartment.

What happened when they arrived? The press release says the investigators were greeted by “Parkin dressed as his 77-year-old mother, wearing a red cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an Oxygen tank”

Queens Baby Dies After Falling into Mop Bucket at Day Care Center

Daily News- Police were investigating the death of a Queens baby who perished Monday when he fell headfirst into a mop bucket at his baby-sitter's house.

James Farrior, who would have been 1 year old next month, was declared dead at Jamaica Hospital at 11:25 a.m.

"What can I say, he was my baby? We're trying to cope," said his devastated mom, Chrisann Josiah. "We don't know what happened yet."

It was not immediately clear if James drowned or broke his neck. An autopsy will be performed today.

"I saw the firefighters bring the boy out. He was gasping for air," said neighbor Billy Casares, 41. "It's heartbreaking."

Baby-sitter Kristal Khan, 28, who normally took care of two neighborhood kids along with her small son and daughter in an informal but legal day care arrangement, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, police said.

Police sources said Khan told cops James and her two kids, ages 3 and 4, were in the living room with the bucket when she went to fetch a mop.

When she came back, she found James had fallen headfirst into the blue 7-gallon mop bucket that was three-quarters full of water.

Neighbor Liz Rivero, 31, a mother of three, said she began to pray when she saw a firefighter running Monday morning with the baby, limp and faceup, to an ambulance waiting a block away.
"I started to cry when I saw that. I am a mom," Rivero said.

Khan and a man neighbors said was her brother were taken away for questioning.

"They looked sad," Rivero said.

At Khan's green two-story house on 108th St. in South Richmond Hill, colorful stickers on the door advertise, "Childcare, All Day, Everyday."

The operation had no permits or license, but did not require any because there were fewer than three outside kids and the caregiver was older than 18.

Neighbors said Khan is well-known and well-regarded.

"She usually takes good care of the kids," said William Munoz, 40. "She's a very responsible person."

Khan's Web site says she is a married, convent-educated immigrant from Trinidad who taught elementary school for eight years and has a teacher certificate.

Because children can drown quickly and virtually silently in small amounts of water, drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death in children, after car crashes.

NYC Parking Tickets Pile Up on Windshield of Dusty Minivan With Dead Body Inside

NEW YORK - A man's decomposing body inside a minivan covered in parking tickets went undiscovered for weeks because the vehicle's windows were apparently tinted and ticketing officers don't normally search cars, police said Friday.

George Morales, 59, died naturally from heart disease, the medical examiner's office said Friday. The body was found in the backseat Wednesday when a city marshal tried to tow the vehicle from beneath an overpass on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, police said. He was believed to have been living out of the white Chevrolet minivan, which had North Carolina plates.

But his daughter, Jennifer Morales, 29, told the Daily News he had been living with her family in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. She said she last saw him in early May and had called police.

"The window was cracked open. I don't understand how no one noticed him. They just gave him tickets," she told the Daily News.

She said her father was a handyman who suffered from diabetes. But police do not have a missing person's report on record for Morales.

It wasn't clear exactly how many tickets were on the minivan's windshield when the body was discovered. Witnesses had reported a foul odor near the vehicle.

The Morales family plans to cremate the remains. Officials used X-rays taken of him in 2007 at Elmhurst Hospital Center to positively identify him, Jennifer Morales told the newspaper.

New York Bouncer Found Guilty In 2006 Slaying of Student

(His DNA is found on the ties used to bind her, and he kidnapped someone else back in 2005.. Oh, yeah, "definite" scapegoat.)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Manhattan nightclub bouncer was found guilty of murder Wednesday in the slaying of a 24-year-old graduate student from Boston, Massachusetts, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office said.

Darryl Littlejohn, 44, could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the death of Imette St. Guillen, a criminology student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 8.

"We're going to appeal," Littlejohn's lawyer, Joyce David, told CNN after the conviction. "We're disappointed. I'm hoping this gives the family of the victim some closure. But I think that the wrong man was convicted."

The verdict came several hours into the first day of deliberations by the jury.

Before the verdict, David stressed to CNN that she believed in the innocence of her client, saying that Littlejohn was framed and that another person was a likely suspect.

"He was a convenient scapegoat who has a long criminal record," David said.

During the trial, witnesses said they saw Littlejohn and St. Guillen leaving The Falls bar in lower Manhattan together early on February 25, 2006. Hours later, St. Guillen's nude body was found in an isolated lot in Brooklyn.

Her face was covered with strips of packing tape, and a sock was stuffed in her throat. She died of asphyxiation. Investigators determined she had been raped.

Littlejohn was charged with murder after investigators linked his DNA to blood found on plastic ties used to bind St. Guillen's hands behind her back.

Littlejohn is already serving a term of 25 years to life for the October 2005 kidnapping of a 19-year-old college student in Queens.

NYPD Police Officer Killed by Fellow Officer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A police officer chasing a theft suspect was fatally shot Thursday night by another officer after he failed to drop his weapon when ordered to, authorities said.

Authorities said Officer Omar Edwards, 25, was shot three times. The incident is under investigation.

Edwards was in plainclothes and carrying a handgun as he chased the suspect past a police car.

Authorities said the officer who shot him said he didn't realize Edwards was a police officer.

Edwards had just left the Housing Bureau Station House on East 124th Street, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly at a news conference Friday. As Edwards approached his vehicle, he saw a man rummaging through it.

Edwards took out his gun -- a Smith and Wesson 9 mm -- and chased the alleged thief, 43-year-old Miguel Santiago, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.

Meanwhile, a police cruiser with a sergeant and two officers, including Officer Andrew Dunton, had just turned onto 125th Street from 1st Avenue.

Santiago ran in front of the unmarked vehicle as it approached halfway up the block and the vehicle stopped.

The officer in the front passenger seat got out of the vehicle and shouted for Edwards to stop running and drop his weapon.

According to Kelly, the officers reported that, after the command was given, Edwards turned toward Dunton with his gun in his hand.

Dunton fired his Glock 9 mm six times, hitting Edwards three of those times -- once in the left arm, once in the left side and once in the back, according to police. Emergency crews responding to the scene found Edwards wearing a police academy T-shirt under his clothes and found his police shield and ID in his front left pants pocket, according to Browne.

Edwards, who lived in Brooklyn, was recently married and had two small children, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV in New York.

On Friday, his relatives remembered him as a good person who achieved what he set out to do.

"He was a wonderful, wonderful child from when he was small," his father, Ricardo Edwards, told WABC.

"His desire was always to be a policeman and to play football," his uncle, Jerome Harding told the New York TV station. "And he did accomplish both, because he plays for the Police Department."

Edwards was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital at 11:21 p.m. Thursday, according to Kelly.

"Tragic accidents like this are another reminder of the dangers our police officers often face as they keep our city the safest big city in the nation," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.

"Rest assured we will find out exactly what happened here, see what we can learn from it so it may never happen again. All the city's prayers are with Omar Edwards and his family."

Five eyewitnesses, along with 20 people who reported hearing gunshots, were interviewed by police.

The officer who fired the shots has 4½ years' experience, authorities said.

The officers involved have been placed on administrative duties while the shooting is investigated. Police later arrested the alleged thief on suspicion of breaking into Edwards' car.

Alright Sutherland!

NEW YORK (WPIX) -- Sources tell PIX News that a complaint was filed against the actor Tuesday after he headbutted a man while attending an after party for the Metropolitan Art Institute's Costume Gala Monday night.

The alleged victim, who has been identified as fashion designer Jack McCollough, was seen nursing what appeared to be a broken nose when leaving the First Precinct in Lower Manhattan Tuesday night.

The incident reportedly happened around 2 a.m. outside a SoHo nightclub Monday. McCollough is claiming he suffered only a laceration to his nose when Sutherland attacked him following a heated argument.

According to reports, the scuffle between Sutherland and McCollough erupted after the designer pushed actress Brooke Shields.

The incident, which was witnessed by Kiefer, prompted the "24" actor to rush over and assist Shields - who happens to be a former co-star.

Sources tell PIX News, when Sutherland demanded McCollough apologize for the incident, he refused and immediately dismissed the actor. McCollough, who is one half of the fashion design duo Proenza Schouler, was seen shoving Sutherland who responded with a headbutt.

Kiefer, who is currently on probation for a 2007 DUI bust, has not responded to the allegations. Sources say he has not been questioned by New York City police as of Tuesday night.

As far as Shields' involvement, earlier reports claim she had nothing to do with the brawl between the Sutherland and McCollough. However, a source tells celebrity website TMZ that "Brooke was definitely involved."

PIX News has learned that New York City police want to talk to both Sutherland and Shields to get their account of the incident, as they further investigate the matter.