Photo by Joy Bergmann at Riverside Park.
There were two stabbings this past week in the neighborhood, and arrests have been made in both of them, according to Deputy Inspector Timothy Malin of the 20th precinct.
On Tuesday night, a 39-year-old man was stabbed in front of 203 West 81st Street. The victim was wounded in the left flank, abdomen and scapular and received other lacerations, Malin wrote in an email. “He was aided by some good Samaritans on the scene, until a NYPD Emergency Service Unit came to help the victim with his injuries.” He’s now able to talk and was recently listed in stable condition.
“The parties are known to each other and have had an on-going dispute. When they passed each other, quick words were exchanged, and then the perpetrator pulled the knife and stabbed the victim.”
Krishna Cocco, a 41-year-old who lives in the neighborhood, was charged with first degree assault in the crime.
On Thursday night, a 59-year-old man was stabbed in the neck in Riverside Park around 83rd Street. Daniel Shasteen, a 34 year old was arrested for the stabbing. Both men appear to be homeless, Malin wrote. “The victim is in stable condition, but because of damage to his neck, he has yet to be able to speak. So we still don’t know the origin of the dispute.”
Deputy Inspector Malin says that both men appear to be homeless. Please ask Malin on what basis did he make this assumption, because this sounds like profiling.
Also, why is it that no one comments on articles like this….
I’m asking for a friend.
Deb, you should thank DI Malin for responding here and then you should apologize. You made an unfair and uninformed assumption that – after an arrest – the NYPD would guess a perpetrator and a victim were homeless based on appearance alone. You had to know they had more information – after an arrest. You were too quick to assume the worst. The NYPD deserves better than that.
Evan, I did thank him for the clarification, but I am not apologizing for my comment. The article stated that Malin wrote “both men appear to be homeless”. Then, in DI Malin’s post, Malin said that one of the men told him that he was homeless. That is a big difference. My original comment was made based on what the article said.
Deb, we all get it. You’re super woke.
But I’ll bet there are homeless people you can identify as such without being told.
Let’s not let PC-ness destroy common sense, OK?
I’m not so sure. I worked in an SRO and people there were completely unlike my stereotypes. I’m sure there are homed people who ‘look’ homeless, and vice versa.
The perpetrator told us he was homeless, and the victim had a suitcase with belongings typical of a transient.
The use of the (cautionary) phrase “appeared to be homeless” was employed simply because when the victim becomes conscious and alert, he may tell us that he is staying in a shelter.
DI Malin, Thanks for all your hard work and your constant communication with the community.
Thanks for the clarification
Thank you for clarifying. We’re fortunate to have a local forum to clear things up. Riverside Park is currently not the safest place to be. I’d love to see the crime stats surrounding the boat basin area.
We have people running around stabbing each other and all you can think about is how Captain Malin determines that they are homeless?
Best police force and greatest detectives in the world & you don’t think they can distinguish a homless person?
Who you gonna call in an emergency?
Apathy. We’re slipping back to the ’80s
Once again, excellent work by the NYPD despite working for a corrupt mayor and city council who believe that living with crime is acceptable! Unfortunately, crime is going up and arrests are going down in this new era of “cops are always guilty.”
apparently you didn’t read DI Malin’s comments on an earlier thread, which noted how crime continues to go down in the area and in the city.
Cops are not “always guilty”. But there have been serious problems from a minority of bad apples, which were ignored and even encouraged under Giuliani and Bloomberg. When cops ARE proven to be guilty, they should be punished, as in any other profession. the large majority of police are out there doing a hard job.
Hey Helen Rosenthal! Are you aware of what’s going on here on the UWS?