Volume 16 • Issue 38 | February 20 – 26, 2004
Police blotter
Murder attempt Downtown
Police arrested three men in a car on Market and Monroe Sts. during the early hours of Sat. Feb. 14 in connection with a gang assault and attempted murder in which a victim was stabbed, slashed and beaten, police said.
The victim, Steven Luo, left MVP Sports Cafe at 45 John St. near Nassau St. and was walking to the subway at 3 a.m. when a group of about 10 Asian men attacked him with “sticks, bats, bottles and other weapons,” and left him bleeding and unconscious on the sidewalk, according to a spokesperson in the district attorney’s office. One attacker punched him as he was leaving the cafe and the others piled on a few minutes later, police said. Luo was taken to Bellevue in critical condition.
The three defendants, Patrick Har, 22, and Steven Wong, 24, both of Knickerbocker Village on Monroe St., and Lawrence Mach, 19, of the LaGuardia Houses on Clinton St., fled the scene in a white Acura and were apprehended soon after, police said. They were charged with second degree attempted murder and first and second degree assault. Police said they found a small amount of drugs in the car along with a bat and a tire iron.
Police said the case is still under investigation and they are looking for other suspects.
Man saved
Four officers from the Fifth Precinct who responded to a call at 8:50 a.m. Sat. Feb. 14 about a disturbed man threatening to jump from the roof of 182 South St. in the Al Smith Houses were able to grab the subject and pull him to safety. Officers Andrew Buck, Louis Barbera, Thomas Lotito and Robert Tedesco took part in the rescue, police said.
Bank robbed
A man who entered the HSBC Bank branch at 207 Varick St. near Houston St. at 3:55 p.m. Wed. Feb 11 passed a note to a teller demanding money and fled with an undetermined amount of cash, police said.
—Albert Amateau
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