28th Annual National Night Out from Village Beat Report on Vimeo.
During Tuesday’s National Night Out celebration on Stanton Street there was lots of talk about a diturbance that took place as 7th Precinct Commander Nancy Barry was addressing the crowd assembled for the anti-violence event. Now The East Village Local has more on the incident.
According to the report, “a man fleeing the scene of a gang assault made an unlucky wrong turn and ran right into police listening to (Barry’s remarks).” A police spokesman said he was among a group of 7 who allegedly assaulted a 24-year old man near the intersection of Ridge and Attorney streets, just a few steps away from the National Night Out stage. More details:
The police quickly pinned the suspect against a wall and put him in handcuffs. Five minutes after they had the suspect in custody, the festivities resumed. The six other suspects were also arrested, according to a police spokesman. The group was charged with a variety of different crimes, including gang assault, criminal possession of a weapon (the result of a bottle allegedly thrown at the scene of the crime), possession of marijuana, and jumping bail. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for a laceration to his arm.
The spokesman said no knife or gun was “involved in the incident.” This contradicts a report in the Chinese language newspaper Singtao Daily (via Our Chinatown):
At least eight suspects were collared (Tuesday) afternoon in the Lower East Side by dozens of police officers who were gathering to celebrate the 28th Annual National Night Out Against Crime. At the time of occurrence, a male victim was stabbed in front of 189 Stanton Street. Witnesses said that several men ran down Stanton Street from Ridge Street toward Attorney Street shouting “He has a gun”. Dozens of cops, gathered only a block away for a celebration ceremony, responded by immediately containing the surrounding streets. Captain Peter Venice, incoming Commanding Officer of the 7th Precinct, led the search and quickly took at least six suspects into custody.
As we reported yesterday, Deputy Inspector Barry is being transferred to the 24th Precinct. Captain Venice’s first official day on the job is Friday.
Singtao has some dramatic photos from the scene, including an image of a knife laying on the ground.
