Crime & Safety

Year in Review: Breaking Police News on North Fork

What police headline do you remember most from 2013?

Here are some of the police headlines that caught readers' attention in 2013:

1) Game Stop Robber Caught; Same Man Charged With String of Suffolk Hold-Ups: The armed robber who held up the Mattituck Game Stop at gunpoint was caught in November, police said — and he's the same suspect charged in a string of Suffolk County hold-ups.

According to Southold Town Police and Suffolk County Police, Paul Tromblee, 35, of Manorville was arrested Saturday and charged charged with a string of armed robberies across Suffolk County over the past two weeks, including one at a Calverton Hess station, police said Sunday.

Suffolk County police said they arrested Tromblee on Sunrise Highway in Brookhaven on Nov. 9 at 3:05 p.m. 

Since Oct. 26, gas stations in Calverton, Mastic, North Babylon, St. James, Dix Hills, and Bohemia as well as Jamba Juice in Stony Brook, Kissed by the Sun Tanning in Islip, and CVS Pharmacy in Lake Ronkonkoma were robbed by an armed suspect who demanded cash after pretending to purchase merchandise, police said.

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2) Cops: Armed Robbery at Southold Chinese Restaurant: Employees of a Chinese restaurant in Southold reported an armed robbery on March 20.

According to two employees, a man brandishing a gun entered the Cai Hong Restaurant on Route 48 in Southold at  8:58 p.m. and demanded cash.

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Southold Town police are  investigating the robbery that took place at the Cai Hong Restaurant. According  to police, a subject dressed in all black, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, entered the restaurant, displayed a black handgun and stole approximately $500 from the cash register.

The subject then fled in an easterly direction. No further details were immediately available, police said.

The robbery was the second hold-up of a Chinese restaurant on the North Fork in two days: On March 17, a masked gunmen held up a Chinese restaurant in Greenport.

According Southold Town Police, a call was received Sunday at 8:40 p.m. regarding a robbery that took place at the New China Restaurant on Front Street in Greenport.

Police said a subject dressed in all black, wearing a hat and mask, entered the restaurant, displayed a black handgun and stole approximately $400 from the cash register. The subject then fled in an unknown direction.

3) DA: Suspect's Chilling Texts Contained Religious Overtones, Threats: The man charged with killing a popular equestrian who owned a North Fork horse farm sent chilling texts — and a dead pigeon — in the months leading up to the brutal murder, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney.

This week, District Attorney Thomas Spota released the texts, along with a note that was sent with a dead pigeon from accused killer Brett Knight, to the Upper Sheep Pasture Road home in Setauket of Ross Reisner, who was killed on Sept. 24, after Knight allegedly fired 11 shots through the window, striking Reisner and grazing the arm of his partner of 26 years, Kevin Murray.


4) Cops: Man Charged in Knife Brawl that Heated Up Again At Hospital: A man has been charged with a Greenport parking lot brawl between three men that continued in the hospital emergency room last weekend, police said.

According to Southold Town Police, Hraklis C. Morris, 36, of Greenport, was arrested Sunday morning at 9:20 a.m. at police headquarters.

Morris, police said, was arrested after an investigation regarding a brawl that allegedly broke out on Nov. 17 at 12:17 a.m. between three men in the Adams Street parking lot in Greenport.

Morris and the victim were both injured in the altercation and taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital by friends, police said. 

Morris was charged with assault in the first degree, a felony, for causing serious physical injury by means of a knife to the 24-year-old Shelter Island victim, police said. 

At the hospital, the altercation heated up again, police said; Morris allegedly then attacked a 33-year-old Southold resident in the emergency room at 12:31 a.m.; he was charged with assault in the third degree, a felony, for that incident.

Emergency room staff initially reported injuries sustained while trying to subdue Morris, but no charges have yet been brought with respect to those claims, police said. 
 
5) Robert Beodeker's Attorney: 'It Was Just A Terrible Accident': As a college dean charged in a double fatal accident faced felony charges, Aquebogue resident Robert Boedeker's attorney said questions continue to swirl about the incident.

Beodeker, an Aquebogue resident who is facing upgraded felony charges after being arrested again in March, is represented by Plainview-based defense attorney Richard Wool.

Wool said Beodeker, who was slated to appear before Nassau District Court Judge David McAndrews Tuesday, could either be indicted, or face a felony exam. A felony exam is done to determine whether there is proof or reason a defendant can still be held on charges; if not, Beodeker could be released Tuesday, Wool said, although he added that his client also could be indicted.

His client, he reminded, has not yet been indicted on any charges.

Of his client, Wool said, "He's a good guy. This is just a terrible accident."

Wool said there were questions that remained about the accident that needed to be answered. "It's an unfortunate situation. We're not sure where these vicims were at the time they got hit. They may have been in the middle of the road, for all we know. We really don't know where they were, and we're trying to find out. Hopefully, this will be just a bad accident."

Beodeker faced upgraded charges after the accident that killed two in Nassau County, police said.

Beodeker, 50, surrendered to state police investigators and was arrested and charged Friday with aggravated vehicular homicide, a felony, two counts of vehicular manslaughter in the second degree, a felony, two counts of criminally negligent homicide, a felony, and driving while ability impaired, a misdemeanor, New York State Police said.

The charges, police said, stemmed from a March 4 accident in which Beodeker was found to have methamphetamine and amphetamine in his blood at the time of a double fatal accident.

According to a Newday report, Beodeker pleaded not guilty; Nassau District Court Judge David McAndrews set bail at $1 million bond or $500,000 cash bail. If convicted of the top charge against him, faces up to 25 years in prison, Newsday said.

The accident occurred on the Meadowbrook State Parkway southbound at the interchange with the Southern State Parkway, police said.

According to police, Beodeker was driving a GMC pick-up southbound, near the Southern State Parkway, when he struck a disabled Nissan Maxima which had become disabled and stopped on the white hazard markings. Beodeker, police said, failed to merge and instead drove onto the hazardous markings, striking the disabled vehicle as well as both victims.

Both John Elder, 76, of Freeport, and Edward Ross, 65, of North Bellmore, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Consent for a blood sample was given and a sample was taken, police said.

After the accident occurred, it was revealed that Beodeker had a suspended New York State drivers' license.

Wool said Beodeker's license was suspended because "he had a couple of tickets he didn't pay. It's absolutely nothing."

Beodeker was initially arrested at the time for aggravated unlicensed operation in the second degree and reckless driving, both misdemeanors, police said; a medical examiner's toxicology report revealed impairment due to drugs. The vehicular crimes unit of the Nassau County District Attorney's office directed the upgraded charges due to the on going investigation and toxicology results.  

Meanwhile, investigated anonymous threats of violence toward his family left on Beodeker's office phone of after the double fatal accident.

Beodeker remains incarcerated; he is slated to appear back in court on Jan. 31.

 


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