Category: Nypd
Bronx male allegedly says ‘f**k you’ to elderly neighbor’s gripe about loud music. As tensions rise, elderly man grabs a gun.
Gilbert Smalls, 76, told police he complained about loud music coming from 21-year-old Justin Chatfield’s next-door apartment in the River Park Towers in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx on Thursday night, the New York Daily News reported, citing law enforcement sources.
With that, Smalls claimed the much younger Chatfield responded “f**k you” to his complaint; their argument took place through a wall that separates their apartments, the Daily News said.
‘Her baby, one of her babies, died in her arms.’
Moments later, Smalls told police he heard seven shots fired outside his window, the paper said, citing sources. Police haven’t determined if shots actually were fired, the Daily News added.
Smalls, who lives with his wife and told police he’s in poor health, then got his gun — a 9-mm pistol he keeps in a safe, the paper said.
Smalls then stepped into the hallway, the Daily News said, adding that Smalls’ doorway and Chatfield’s doorway are just inches apart.
Law enforcement sources told the paper that surveillance video obtained by investigators shows Smalls opening fire at Chatfield as soon as Chatfield came to his own apartment doorway.
Walter Fields — an attorney and longtime friend of Chatfield’s family — told the Daily News that after Chatfield was shot, he stumbled back into his apartment and tried to get help from his mother.
“Her baby, one of her babies, died in her arms,” Fields told the paper last week.
The Daily News said Chatfield was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital but couldn’t be saved.
Sources told the paper that police soon knocked on Smalls’ door with the intention of asking to look at his Ring doorbell video — but Smalls confessed instead.
“I’m the one who shot him,” one source quoted Smalls saying, the Daily News reported.
More from the paper:
Smalls then led police into his apartment and gave officers the key to the safe containing his gun, sources said.
The suspect suggested he shot his neighbor thinking he may have been armed, sources said.
He complained of health issues, telling cops he doesn’t expect to “make it,” presumably while behind bars, sources said.
Smalls was arraigned Saturday on murder and gun possession charges in Bronx Criminal Court and ordered held without bail, the Daily News said, adding that Smalls’ lawyer declined comment Monday.
Sources told the paper there had been previous tensions between Smalls and Chatfield, but it doesn’t appear police had ever been called to their apartments.
Chatfield had multiple arrests on his record, most recently for robbery in January 2025, police told the Daily News.
A large makeshift memorial was set up outside the apartment building for Chatfield, the paper said.
Chatfield also was expecting a child with his longtime girlfriend, the Daily News said. The couple were high school sweethearts, Fields added to the paper.
“He was very close to having a baby — I mean, within months,” Fields also told the Daily News. “He should be a new father. He was looking for work, going to trade schools. He was really trying to become a productive member. Support his family, support his child.”
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ICE makes pitch to NYPD cops after Mamdani promises radical overhaul
A poll conducted ahead of the New York City mayoral election found that 9% of residents would “definitely” leave the city and another 25% would “consider” relocating if Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani proved victorious on Nov. 4.
It is yet to be seen whether NYC will ultimately hemorrhage millions of residents in the coming months. It appears, however, that Mamdani’s rise to power has already prompted departures at the New York Police Department.
‘How do you work for somebody who considers you racist and anti-queer and wants to defund the police?’
Citing sources familiar with the situation and Police Pension Fund data, the New York Post indicated that a surge of police officers quit in the weeks leading up to the mayoral election, when Mamdani was a clear favorite to win.
In October, the NYPD reportedly saw a 35% spike in police of all ranks leaving the force. Whereas 181 left the force in October 2024, this year 245 officers left during the same stretch.
Detectives Endowment Association president Scott Munro told the Post, “Morale is down because everyone is concerned about the policies Mamdani wants to put in place.”
“You have a person who is supposed to be running New York City that does not believe in law enforcement,” continued Munro. “What’s coming out of everyone’s mouth is, ‘We’re in trouble.'”
RELATED: Here’s what exit polls reveal about Tuesday’s electoral bloodbath
Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
Mamdani, who takes office on Jan. 1, has made no secret in recent years of his antipathy toward the NYPD.
The mayor-elect suggested, for instance, in a June 28, 2020, tweet that the NYPD “is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” and stressed that it was necessary to “defund the police.”
“How do you work for somebody who considers you racist and anti-queer and wants to defund the police?” said one retired cop. “Things are hard enough already. If you’re eligible to leave, why would you want to stay in that situation?”
Mamdani now claims that he doesn’t want to defund the police; however, he has indicated that he’s not interested in hiring more police to address the NYPD’s near-record-low numbers and appears keen to replace police in certain circumstances with social workers.
On the campaign trail, Mamdani proposed the creation of an agency aimed at preventing “violence before it happens by taking a public health approach to safety.” The so-called Department of Community Safety would have a budget of over $1 billion — drawing $605 million from existing programs — and would appropriate some of the responsibilities of police, including responding to mental health calls and dealing with erratic homeless individuals.
Some individuals with actual experience dealing with the city’s mentally ill and homeless have suggested that Mamdani’s proposal is disaster waiting to happen.
A Bronx cop told the Post, “How’s that going to work when the person pulls out a gun or a knife?”
“You can’t do this without police — it’s impossible,” Richard Perkins, a behavioral nurse with 14 years’ experience told the Gothamist. “No one in their right mind would do this alone. You’re going to get hurt.”
Mamdani’s appointment of Elle Bisgaard-Church as his chief of staff signals he’s likely serious about the DCS. Bisgaard-Church, who serves as Mamdani’s campaign manager, was reportedly the proposed agency’s “chief architect.”
In addition to effectively replacing police with social workers on certain calls, Mamdani has ruffled feathers by committing to both closing Rikers Island prison and shifting the final say on police disciplinary actions from the NYPD commissioner to the anti-police Civilian Complaint Review Board.
‘It seems to me like there may be people from there looking for jobs.’
“Nobody wants to be a New York City cop,” a police union consultant told the Post. “It’s not worth the money, the stress, the danger, especially working for a mayor who wants to take the department apart.”
Blaze News has reached out for comment to the New York City Police Benevolent Association and the Sergeants Benevolent Association of the NYPD as well as to the mayor’s office.
Retired NYPD Chief of Department John Chell recently told Newsmax that about 4,000 police officers of every rank are eligible for retirement in January but suggested that “it remains to be seen” whether there will ultimately be a mass exodus.
In the meantime, law enforcement organizations in other jurisdictions are extending offers to disenchanted NYPD officers.
The Houston Police Officers’ Union, for instance, released a flyer earlier his month telling New York cops “disgusted with the election of Zohran Mamdani” that the Houston Police Department is hiring and offering “competitive pay with [a] 36.5% pay raise just approved over 5 years.”
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office was one of the outfits in Florida that is similarly trying to recruit from the NYPD, reported WMBB-TV.
“With the changing of what’s going on in New York City with a new mayor and probably a different way of doing things for law enforcement up there, it seems to me like there may be people from there looking for jobs,” said Sheriff A.J. Smith. “And I have jobs. And I would love to have anybody from the NYPD or anywhere up that way that may be affected by the change to apply here.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also seizing on the opportunity to recruit New York cops alienated by the incoming mayor.
ICE shared a recruitment poster to social media last month captioned, “NYPD OFFICERS: Work for a President and a Secretary who support and defend law enforcement — not defund or demonize it.”
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13 thugs chase, stab, beat, rob teen boy on his way home from school in NYC. They make off with his sneakers — worth $350.
A 15-year-old New York City boy spoke out from his hospital bed this week after police said a group of 13 suspects — also teenagers — attacked and stabbed and robbed him on Oct. 22.
Police said the boy was on his way home from school in Jamaica, Queens, when the broad-daylight attack occurred at the intersection of 160th Street and Hillside Avenue, WCBS-TV reported.
‘What happened to my son is horrific.’
With his mother by his side, the victim recounted to the station the words of one of his attackers.
“Give me all your clothes, whatever you’re wearing, your shoes,” the boy recalled one of the mob members telling him, WCBS noted.
He then told the station, “I [started] running. After that, they pushed me and stabbed me.”
The vicious attack left the 15-year-old with severe stab wounds, broken bones, bruises — and needing surgery, the station said.
After all that, WCBS said the suspects stole the victim’s sneakers — worth $350.
“I was shocked to see my son in this condition,” the boy’s mother told the station in her native language of Punjabi. “What happened to my son is horrific.”
Local activist Japneet Singh told WCBS the attack took place on “a major avenue, major corridor” and that “if that can happen to this boy, it can happen to any of our children. We have to make sure we protect our kids.”
While the boy has months of recovery ahead of him — including three surgeries — his mother told the station she hopes those responsible are caught. Meanwhile, she added to WCBS that she’s not leaving his side: “Ever since he was attacked, I’ve been here with him day and night.”
Police told WNYW-TV that detectives are reviewing surveillance video from the area to identify those involved.
Those with information about the attack are urged to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477), WNYW said, adding that tips can be submitted confidentially online or by text.
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