Day: January 30, 2025

Detectives in Brooklyn are trying to find the suspect who violently stabbed a man last week.

Police released on Wednesday night images of the perpetrator behind the bloody assault in the vicinity of Sheffield and Sutter Avenues in East New York at about 9 p.m. on Jan. 23.

According to law enforcement sources, the assailant approached a 32-year-old man at the location and went on the attack, stabbing him in the torso and kicking him multiple times about the body.

The suspect was long gone by the time officers from the 75th Precinct responded to the scene. 

EMS rushed the victim to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

Police described the suspect as a man with a dark complexion standing about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white hooded sweatshirt under a black jacket, along with a black hat, black pants, and red-and-white sneakers.

Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA). You can also submit tips online at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (formerly Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.

Electric bicycles stored at the NYPD’s Erie Basin Auto Pound caught fire on Wednesday morning in the third fire at the facility since 2022. 

The fire broke out at the 700 Columbia St. lot at 9:46 a.m., per the FDNY. Video posted online showed thick plumes of black smoke rising into the sky, visible from miles away. 

Though it was not immediately clear how many vehicles eventually caught fire, firefighters were able to extinguish the flames by 10:19 a.m. One EMT was left with minor injuries, and a Hazmat crew was called in to safely remove the damaged e-bikes and batteries, a fire department spokesperson said.

Lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power e-bikes and scooters, are infamously dangerous and prone to catching fire — especially when they are damaged or stored incorrectly. If multiple e-bikes are stored next to each other, a fire can cause a chain reaction of explosions. 

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to the FDNY. An NYPD spokesperson did not answer questions about how many vehicles were damaged or how many were stored in the lot as of Wednesday morning. 

Wednesday’s fire was the third at Erie Basin since 2022, and the second in three months. In December 2022, a massive fire destroyed an NYPD evidence warehouse at the site. In November 2024, another blaze in the impound lot damaged up to 22 vehicles. 

“For the 3rd time in 4 years the police impound lot in Red Hook is on fire, which seems like something @NYCMayor should really look into?” one local shared on X. “Impound lots probably shouldn’t catch on fire that often? Maybe?”

Last year, local Council Member Alexa Avilés told Brooklyn Paper she thought the repeated fires were a “clear indication that this evidence warehouse is not being properly managed nor that systems have been put in place to put out fires.”

The cause of the 2024 fire has not yet been determined, an FDNY spox told Brooklyn Paper earlier this month, while the 2022 warehouse blaze was found to have been caused by an electrical blowout. The NYPD has previously confirmed the impound lot does have fire hydrants and extinguishers. 

Advocates have also worried that the fires could destroy or damage evidence still needed in court. In 2022, almost everything stored inside the Erie Basin warehouse was destroyed by fire, and many of the vehicles stored in the auto pound are part of active investigations, according to the NYPD’s website. 

Some of those vehicles are returned to their owners after cases are finished. In 2017, more than 1,000 civilians picked their vehicles up at the lot, a police captain told the City Council the following year.