A Brooklyn man was arrested in Florida in the brazen daylight armed robbery of a SoHo luxury store after authorities say he bragged about the heist on social media, authorities said Monday as the defendant was detained without bail. Eric Spencer, 29, faced a single robbery charge after his Saturday arrest in Fort Lauderdale in the Feb. 2 robbery at a luxury Chanel store. The charge carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison. He was detained without bail after a Monday hearing in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. A message for comment was sent to Spencer’s court-appointed lawyer. According to a criminal complaint in Manhattan federal court, Spencer bragged on social media after the robbery that he had so many luxury items that he could open his own small boutique.

Tragedy struck the Williamsburg community on Wednesday morning, when word spread of a fatal accident involving a young child. The incident occurred at around 8:00AM on Hooper Street and South 5th Street, when an approximately 6/7 year-old child was fatally struck by a vehicle. Williamsburg Hatzolah responded and Paramedics attempted to save the child life, but were unfortunately unsuccessful due to the massive injuries sustained. Sources tell YWN that initially it was believed that the child was struck by an MTA bus, but it appears that the bus only stopped to help the child – who was struck by a hit and run vehicle. Chesed Shel Emes is on the scene, and the NYPD was investigating the incident. Additional information will be published when it becomes available to us.

Police officers shown on body camera video holding Daniel Prude down naked and handcuffed on a city street last winter until he stopped breathing will not face criminal charges, according to a grand jury decision announced Tuesday. The 41-year-old Black man’s death last March sparked nightly protests in Rochester, New York, after the video was released nearly six months later, with demonstrators demanding a reckoning for police and city officials. State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office took over the prosecution and impaneled a grand jury, said her office “presented the strongest case possible” and she was “extremely disappointed” by the decision.

The man who surrendered at the FBI’s Hudson Valley office Monday to face charges in connection with the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol siege is a retired NYPD officer who had been assigned for a time to work perimeter security at City Hall and at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the investigation told News 4 Tuesday. Thomas Webster, who is expected to appear in federal court in White Plains later in the day, is accused of using a pipe to attack Capitol Police that day, the officials said. Webster’s attorney, James Monroe, declined to comment Tuesday. The FBI had released an image, later identified by law enforcement officials as Webster, as part of their ongoing investigation into the violence last month.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s approval rating for his pandemic response has plunged from just a few months ago. Forty-one percent of voters agree Cuomo has done something unethical – but not illegal – in his handling of nursing homes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new results released by the Marist College Poll on Tuesday. Another 19 percent take it a step further in thinking he has done something illegal, compared to 27 percent of voters that think he has done no wrongdoing. New Yorkers are also not sold on granting the governor a fourth term — 36 percent of voters said they would elect him again compared to 39 of respondents asked three years ago.

YWN regrets to inform you of the sudden Petira of longtime Flatbush Hatzolah Paramedic Yaakov Aryeh Hakohen (Gary) Lava Z”L, known in Hatzolah by his unit number “F-15”. Gary was one of the original Paramedics in Flatbush Hatzolah and trained dozens of Paramedics over the years as a seasoned instructor. He was a member of Hatzolah for around 30 years. Gary suffered a heart attack on Tuesday morning, and was Niftar shortly after. The Aron will be passing the Flatbush Hatzolah garage at 12:45PM for brief reciting of Tehillim (Ocean Avenue and Ave N) on the way to Kevura. Boruch Dayan HaEmmes…

New York City police will stay out of many mental health crisis calls and social workers will respond instead in parts of northern Manhattan starting this spring, an official told lawmakers Monday. The test program will begin in three Harlem and East Harlem police precincts that together accounted for a highest-in-the-city total of over 7,400 mental health-related 911 calls last year, said Susan Herman, who heads a wide-ranging city mental health initiative called ThriveNYC. The details fleshed out a plan the city outlined broadly in November, aiming to keep psychiatric crises from escalating into confrontations and to provide people with more health-focused help.

In an interview with the Gothamist last week, Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause NY, spoke about the proposed Rank Choice voting system, and singled out New York City’s ‘Orthodox Jewish’ community as an “extremist bloc.” The comment was not only untrue but also inflammatory and derogatory to the city’s Jewish community. Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, who represents Boro Park and parts of Midwood, was outraged at the implications of Lerner’s comments and called her out on Twitter. “How is it acceptable,” tweeted Eichenstein, “for the NY chapter Executive Director to refer to Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers as an extremist bloc?

February 22, 2021 Dear Community Member, Before last Purim, we released our first community advisory regarding a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) that was starting to spread in the United States. At that time, we encouraged the community to take basic precautions and to cancel any large gatherings, including on Purim. Immediately after Purim, unfortunately we saw a tremendous Increase in COVID-19 cases in our community. The devastation that COVID-19 left in its wake was enormous. This Purim has the potential to again be a “super-spreader” event in our community. As such, we feel compelled to release this advisory and remind people not to become complacent. We are hopefully nearing the end of this terrible pandemic, but we are not there yet.

Legislation to set up a recreational marijuana marketplace, decriminalize cannabis and loosen penalties for underage possession of the drug and alcohol was signed into law Monday by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, more than three months after voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question to legalize adult use of the drug. The Democrat-led Assembly and Senate passed the last-minute measure Monday to ease penalties on underage possession of both alcohol and marijuana as a way to secure Murphy’s signature on legislation they had sent him in December. “Our current marijuana prohibition laws have failed every test of social justice, which is why for years I’ve strongly supported the legalization of adult-use cannabis,” the Democratic governor said.