Building in Bensonhurst arson that killed 5 people was illegally divided deathtrap

The Brooklyn building where five people died in an arson was illegally divided - and the partitions made it impossible for several victims to escape, officials said Friday.

The Buildings Department issued three violations against the Bensonhurst building's landlord, who could also soon become the target of a criminal probe, according to law enforcement sources.

Three illegal walls were installed on the 86th St. building's overcrowded third floor, where up to 15 people lived, officials said.

Those walls created only one way out for many of those residents - the stairwell that was filled from smoke from the fire allegedly set by out-of-work day laborer Daniel Ignacio.

Vasilios (Bill) Gerazounis and his company, 20-35 86th Realty, were cited for altering a residence for more than the legally-approved number of families, not providing two exits and working without a permit, city officials said.

"The illegal subdivisions in this building should have never been built," Buildings Department Commissioner Robert LiMandri said.

Gerazounis, whose company was fined $25,000 for each violation, claimed to know nothing about the citations.

"I'm not aware of this [and] I have no idea," said Gerazounis, 66, a real estate agent on Long Island.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's office is considering a criminal investigation against Gerazounis but no charges have been filed, according to the law enforcement sources.

Though initially hailed as a hero for helping some residents escape, Ignacio was arrested several days later after he was identified on surveillance video.

Investigators believe he used a lighter to ignite toilet paper soaked in paint thinner he had placed in a baby carriage at the bottom of the stairwell.

Ignacio, an illegal alien who lived on the building's second floor, was charged with five counts of murder and one count of arson.

Other illegal immigration news today:

Illegal Immigrant Pleads Guilty To Slitting Roommate’s Throat TAVARES — An illegal immigrant has pleaded guilty to cutting his roommate’s throat after an argument over dinner.

Investigators said the fight started after Onesimo Lopez-Cruz cooked dinner for himself, but not for his roommate.

During the fight, Lopez-Cruz claimed he took a knife from his roommate. Other people in the house had to break up the fight.

Prosecutors said about five minutes later, Lopez-Cruz slit his roommate’s throat.

Lopez-Cruz’s guilty plea to second-degree murder carries a 25-year prison sentence. After that, he will be sent back to Mexico.

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2010/2/13/illegal_immigrant_pleads_guilty_to_slitting_roommates_throat.html

Suspected illegal immigrant held in alleged kidnapping, rape

Juan Hernandez, 20, is being held in lieu of $15,000 bail on charges of kidnapping, battery with the intent to commit sexual assault and attempt to commit sexual assault with a deadly weapon. He is also being held by US Immigration Customs Enforcement for illegally re-entering the country.

See mug shot photos of other recent arrests in Washoe County

On Jan. 13, two women went to a home in the 7900 block of North Virginia St with mutual friends, Reno police Sergeant Gerald Rhodes said. Three men, including Hernandez, grabbed one of the women and forced her into a bedroom, where they attempted to sexually assault her, Rhodes said.

During the assault, one of the suspects threatened the woman with a sharp object and then cut her with it, Rhodes said. Some of the women’s friends intervened and helped her to escape the attack.

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A Mexican national who authorities say was caught with 11 illegal immigrants in his vehicle during a traffic stop in southwestern Illinois has been sentenced to six months in federal prison.

Eighteen-year-old Jaziel Casillo-Garcia was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis after pleading guilty to transporting illegal immigrants.

He was arrested last month after an Illinois State Police trooper stopped his vehicle in Madison County.

Casillo-Garcia will be delivered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal proceedings after his release from prison. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-illegalimmigrants,0,2349239.story

Sheriff: Undocumented immigrant stole identity of deputy

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/Sheriff-Undocumented-immigrant-stole-identity-of/d3xzNK2WqU-VtcbiH62OtA.cspx

Illegal alien arrested for hitting and killing little girl

On Sunday afternoon, Boynton Beach police arrested Leticia Flores, 28, for the hit-and-run killing of 10-year-old Darness Brown. The girl’s 13-year-old sister, Darneisha Ellis, was also injured when Flores allegedly hit their scooter.

Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said the girls were riding their scooter on Southwest Ninth Avenue at Southwest Third Street when Flores hit them with her Honda SUV.

In what had to be a sickening scene, Darneisha told the police that as her sister was dying next to her, Flores jumped out of her vehicle and screamed at the two girls for being on the street, she then fled the scene.

The girl’s story was supported by an eyewitness. Jessica Thomas, 24, told police she ran outside when she heard the crash. The affidavit claims: “Once outside, she observed the driver of the vehicle standing outside staring at the injured pedestrian. Thomas then stated that the driver (Flores) got into her vehicle and fled the scene.”

Police caught up to Flores as she pulled into a convenience store parking lot. She told the arresting officers that she left the accident scene because there were other people who had come to the girls’ aid. She also said that she ran because she has no drivers license.

http://www.examiner.com/x-5919-Norfolk-Crime-Examiner~y2009m12d9-Illegal-alien-arrested-for-hitting-and-killing-little-girl

Illegal alien arrested for slashing throat of elderly woman

On Wednesday, police in Slidell, LA, arrested an illegal alien for slashing the throat of his 84-year-old neighbor with a razor blade. The attack left an 8-inch gash in the woman’s throat, her assailant stole about $65 in cash.

The octogenarian victim survived the attack and later identified the man who did odd jobs for her, Ricardo Tenorio-Palma, 20, as the man who tried to kill her.

Slidell Police Capt. Kevin Swann said: “It wasn’t like he demanded money; he stabbed her first. He slashed her first, before he robbed her. He intended to kill her,”

Police allege that on Wednesday afternoon, Tenorio-Palma entered the woman’s home through a door she always left slightly open for her cat.

Punching and kicking, the woman fought off her attacker until the loss of blood and fatigue set in. Left bleeding on the floor, the woman then activated her medical alert necklace.

Tenorio-Palma has been living in Slidell for at least nine months. He was living just across the street from his alleged victim with his brother and three other unidentified men.[snip]

http://www.examiner.com/x-5919-Norfolk-Crime-Examiner~y2009m12d20-Illegal-alien-arrested-for-slashing-throat-of-elderly-woman?cid=examiner-email

3 men indicted in alleged smuggling operation

The three were arrested on Jan. 28 when officers executed a search warrant at a drop house in Lynwood. Federal prosecutors say the men were guards at the house where investigators found 37 illegal aliens inside.

The immigrants [Gustavo Sanchez-Lopez, Diego Martinez-Gonzalez and Francisco Moreno-Lopez ] allegedly were threatened with beatings or death if their smuggling fees, which ran as high as $13,000, were not paid. [snip]

"The illegal subdivisions in this building should have never been built," Buildings Department Commissioner Robert LiMandri said. "Putting a profit ahead of public safety is unacceptable."

Maybe if the NYC government would stop taxing the h*!! out of property owners, and seizing large chunks of the value of their properties through rent control and rent stabilization, there would be a free market for housing in the city, and plenty of housing for everyone who really needs or wants to live here (I'm a part-time NYC resident).

As for the landlord, it's entirely possible he really didn't know about the partitions. The artificially high price of housing in NYC, coupled with artificial restrictions on renting most of the low and moderate priced apartments (which are nearly all subject to either rent control or rent stabilization), means that a lot of people have to rent apartments they can't afford on their own, and do under-the-table sublets of part of the apartment in order to make ends meet. It also means that a lot of people have long term tenancy in rent-stabilized/controlled apartments that they can't afford to give up when they no longer need so much space. Rent-controlled apartments rarely open up, and rent-stabilized apartments return to market-rate starting point each time they change tenants, so for many people, moving to a smaller apartment or one much more distant from Manhattan, means a huge increase in rent that they just can't afford. So they stay put and carve up the apartment that they have at a government-controlled/below-market rate, and charge market rates for the tiny sublet portions.

As usual, government is the problem.

“Creating the chaos Americans won’t create.”

______

Yes, speaking of that, the latest M3 foreign news report is interesting. Take note of ‘The National Rot’ and what the Mexican journalist thinks of his country these days. Poor guy, I’m sure his days are numbered.

And the last item states, “ that the number of foreigners attempting to enter the U.S. illegally in the area of Reynosa (McAllen, Tx) increased last year”...
What’s that we keep hearing about the numbers going down???

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
Visit our website: http://www.nafbpo.org
Foreign News Report

Friday, 2/12/10

El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 2/11/10

Mexico seeks to improve its image abroad

The parliamentary group of Mexico’s PAN Party is supporting a plan by the federal government to promote an improvement of Mexico’s image abroad. The country’s image has suffered and become negative due to news about massacres, violence and the war against crime. The government has asked consultants for projects to rehabilitate and improve its image. (But one reader commented: “The first thing that has to be changed is the enormous corruption among officials, politicians, judges, magistrates, etc., etc., and therefore, that of many citizens also equally accomplices in corruption.)

—————————

Milenio (Mexico City) 2/11/10

“The national rot” [op/col. by Roman Revueltas, titled as above]

For years we thought that the nation’s affairs could be managed any old way – with negligence and dishonestly (“they steal but they know how to govern”, “you and I can fix this, officer, tell me how much”, “just put me wherever and I’ll take care of the rest”… etcetera) – and when we woke up from the nap it turned out that Mexico had become an ungovernable jungle, a territory inhabited by bloody savages, a nation of thieves and of nuisance politicians, one that doesn’t even guarantee the very least to the great majority of its residents.

And so, let’s see now who is the courageous one who fixes things in Ciudad Juarez. The day before yesterday, for example, some low class fellows let loose two gunshots at a student who was driving his car to college. Why? Well, because the young fellow was laughing. I say, he was happy. Why are you laughing? they spat. He must’ve answered something, or maybe he didn’t say anything, or he kept on laughing or perhaps he looked at them in an unfriendly way, or he didn’t look at them at all or he scratched his ear or put on a scared expression….. Bang! Take that, two shots to the head, so you’ll go on laughing in the other world, and you’re lucky because no one has come back to tell us how things are going in the great beyond.

I don’t believe I’ve heard such terrible news in recent times: the event shows the most terrifying disdain for human life and, as an absurd manifestation of pure chance clothed in fatality, it embodies the most extreme vulnerability of the innocent citizen who, simply by going out of his home to live his life, meets with misfortune.

Where are we, what country do we live in, what kind of people are we, who are we? Or, better yet, who are those, those soulless assassins of women and young people, those dehumanized and vile barbarians who, nevertheless, have residence rights in a city without authority, without order and without justice? Where did they come from? We don’t want to know. But, look here, they represent the most extreme face of the national rot. And we can no longer look elsewhere. They are already here.

http://impreso.milenio.com/node/8717609

—————————–

El Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) 2/11/10

NY gang member busted in Nicaragua

The photo below is of Fernando Lindar Soriano Mora, a 31 year old Nicaraguan previously deported from the U.S. and who was head of the dangerous “Latin Kings” gang in New York. Now, Nicaraguan police have arrested him for drug possession.

—————————–

La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 2/11/10

Powerful criminal structures in El Salvador

The President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, said that the recent “massacres” in the country reflect high impact assassinations because of the use of weapons with calibers reserved exclusively for the country’s armed forces and special forces, and that this evidences powerful criminal structures. A security plan has been introduced to counteract this situation.

————————–

El Financiero (Mexico City) 2/11/10

Documents needed for travel to Mexico

Beginning March 1st, citizens, including permanent residents, from Canada and the United States visiting Mexico will be required to present a valid passport or a U.S. Passport Card when entering by land, sea or air. This is said to be for the purpose of improving security and in reciprocity with the immigration and border crossing measures adopted by Canada and the U.S.

—————————

La Jornada (Mexico City) 2/11/10

Meanwhile, in Juarez…

Hours before President Calderon was due to arrive in town, some thugs in Juarez hurled Molotov cocktails at a small grocery store whose owner had refused to pay extortion money. The store’s owner and his son both died in the ensuing fire. A third man was riddled by gunfire outside his home.

—————————

Milenio (Mexico City) 2/11/10

Aliens seek to enter U.S. illegally around Reynosa

The coordinator of the Migrant House in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, vicar Hilario del Pozo Noyola, said that the number of foreigners attempting to enter the U.S. illegally in the area of Reynosa increased last year; he added they are mainly from Honduras and Guatemala, besides countries such as Spain, Japan, and China, among others. The Migrant House has capacity for 120 persons, but this is filled more than 100% during certain times of the year. (Reynosa is right across the lower Rio Grande River valley from McAllen, Texas.)

————————

- end of report -

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.