Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Shots ring out on St. Paddy’s Day

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Shots ring out on St. Paddy’s Day: Shots ring out on St. Paddy’s Day By Aaron Carnegie BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 20- At around 10 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, four shots ...

Shots ring out on St. Paddy’s Day

Shots ring out on St. Paddy’s Day

By Aaron Carnegie

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 20- At around 10 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, four shots rang out in the vicinity of 100 Erdman Place.

At least one car was hit. It had a broken windshield and a broken side window on the driver’s side.

A witness on the scene said that police and Public Safety officers were looking for two men in connection with this crime. No injuries were reported.

#NYPD #St. Patrick’s Day #Shooting

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza: Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza Convicted of Poisoning Son, Drowning in Tub BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 20-    He laced his kids’ pizza with ...

Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza

Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza

Convicted of Poisoning Son, Drowning in Tub

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 20-  He laced his kids’ pizza with rat poison. For that, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson announced that 49-year-old Leonardo Espinal will spend 20-to-life in prison.

Following a plea of guilty last month to murder in the second degree (Class A-1 Felony) and attempted murder in the second degree (Class B Felony), Espinal was sentenced by Supreme Court Justice Troy Webber to 20 years-to-life for the murder of his 5-year-old son Steward, and, concurrently, 15 years in prison plus another five years post-release supervision for the injury to his daughter Mia, who was 7-years-old at the time.

In November 2012, Espinal was having issues with his ex-wife, Rosaura Abreu, and she had kicked him out of the family apartment. When Espinal discovered Abreu was seeing another man, he carried out a callous revenge plan to poison their two children. Espinal penned a suicide note, and fed the poisoned pizza to the children, eating some as well. The little girl threw up from ingesting the rat poison; Steward soiled himself, and the father locked himself and the boy in the bathroom. Refusing to come out, Espinal's stepmother called 911 and police broke down the door to find the father dazed, but alive. The little boy was in the tub, dead from the combination of poison and being submerged in water.  

The children’s mother, Rosaura Abreu, submitted a victim impact statement to the Court: “Mi querido angelito…I will never forget the last time I saw my little son…he was radiant, happy, content, and followed me all around the house. When it was time for me to leave, he followed me to the door and I knelt down to talk with him. It’s as if my heart knew that it would be the last time I would see him alive…

Noting that the tragedy impelled mother and daughter to move, “Mia suffered anxiety attacks every time I would mention going back to that apartment where she lived with her little brother.  She never wanted to sleep in the same bed where she slept with her Steward, protecting him from monsters.

“Mia will have to live for the rest of her life with the horrific memory that her own father caused in attempting to kill her.  Although therapy helped the both of us, Mia and I suffer every day the absence of our boy in our daily lives. Mia suffers…when she goes to parties, when she goes to bed, when she plays with other children, when she sees photos of him, when she sees another boy the same age as him, when she sees me sad because she knows I am thinking of him.

“All we can do is take it day by day.”

#Pizza #Rat Poison #Dad #NYPD #BronxDA

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham Fires Coach

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham Fires Coach: Fordham Fires Coach By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 19- Seven days before the fifth anniversary of his hiring as the head ...

Fordham Fires Coach

Fordham Fires Coach

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 19- Seven days before the fifth anniversary of his hiring as the head coach of the Fordham University men’s basketball team, Tom Pecora was relieved of his duties at Fordham. 

The announcement was made after a meeting between Pecora and David Roach, Fordham’s director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation. The reasons given for Pecora’s separation from the university were the team’s poor won/lost record of 44‐106 (.293) during his five seasons as coach and an a retention rate of only 50 percent of those recruited during the first four years under Pecora. Obviously, those figures were a disappointment to the university’s administration.

After beginning the 2014‐15 basketball season with only five wins in their first 20 games, The Rams closed the year with five wins in 11 contests. The improvement caused Pecora to speak very positively of the future of the Fordham Rams and his place in that future in his final press conference as Fordham coach on March 12 after Fordham’s loss to VCU in the second round of the Atlantic‐10 Championship in Brooklyn, “I think that if you looked at this team, and you didn’t think there was a bright future, you’d be crazy because of the youth and the enthusiasm and the veterans that are coming back.”

His closing words about his happiness and future at Fordham show no thought of what would happen on the following Wednesday, “I feel lucky to work at Fordham, to work in the university that’s got an academic reputation. That’s what brought me there. I thought the combination of athletics in the A‐10 and the academics could make it a special place if they were patient and they have been patient. I think they know they are going to turn the corner here and it’s going to be exciting when it happens. I’m a New York guy, man, I’m not going anywhere. I’m thrilled to still be here.”

Fordham’ press release closed with these words, “Fordham will launch a national search for a new head men’s basketball coach immediately, and will use the services of a search firm in the process.”

#Fordham #Rams #Coach #Bronxnews

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless?

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless?: Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless? (Just what was this 'Coalition for the Homeless' van doing in front of a 'rent stabilized&#...