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A 4-year-old boy died after he took a bullet in the head during a wild shootout on a Bronx basketball court Sunday night, cops and witnesses said. Two men were also wounded in the gunfire that erupted during a hoops tournament at an E. 165th St. court in Morrisania about 9:40 p.m., police said. -snip- The crowd of people had been watching the “First Annual Ghetto Angels Basketball Tournament” at the court in the Forrest Houses. The game was part of an annual memorial for a 15-year-old girl that was stabbed to death one year ago, housing residents said.

It was the bell that first called to him. It was a Sunday afternoon in the mid-1920s, and his family was living in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. When his priest rang the bell during Mass, Gerald Ryan, then about 4, thought the beautiful sound was coming from the monstrance that held the host. At age 7, he was hit by a car, and lost his hearing in one ear. The bell remained in his memory, as if Jesus were calling him in stereo. Now, he is a monsignor, and he has been a priest for 67 years....

BRONX (WABC) -- What is drawing huge crowds in the Bronx, people lining up around the block, to get into a storefront that houses a tax preparation office, what's really going on? People who went to the storefront asked Eyewitness News to investigate after they claim they were promised thousands of dollars in government surplus money that would be put on pre-paid debit cards. Now, the bank that issues those debit cards has put out a warning. "I'd like to talk to the boss," Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Sarah Wallace said. "He's not here," security at E &M Multi Service...

The New York City Housing Authority has extended the lease of a Bronx church that uses one of its facilities after the congregation accused authorities of trying to evict them in the context of an alleged clampdown on worship groups in government buildings. Infinity NY Church, a nondenominational ministry led by Pastor Dimas Salaberrios, has been fighting to keep its space at the Bronx River Community Center after it received a notification from NYCHA that its lease was going to expire, and that the church would need to move by February. A number of congregants staged a protest in front...

Mistrial declared in corruption trial of Bronx Councilman Larry SeabrookProsecutors plan to retry politician BY Robert Gearty & Corky Siemaszko NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Saturday, December 10 2011, 1:56 AM **SNIP** Seabrook is accused of steering City Council slush funds to nonprofits under his control to benefit himself, mistress Gloria Jones-Grant and family members, including a teenage granddaughter. Seabrook is also charged with shaking down a Bronx business that he helped to win a contract on the new Yankee Stadium. In his summation, prosecutor Brent Wible said Seabrook's family and friends got more than $600,000 in city funds from...

If the Zuccotti kids want to protest Wall Street bailouts, they should go occupy the Yankees’ luxury parking garages in The Bronx. Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. wants to give the garages’ private investors a fat-cat rescue at the expense of Gotham’s Main Street mice. Four years ago, the Yankees wanted a souped-up parking “system” for their new ballpark, and Mayor Bloomberg obliged. City Hall helped a previously unknown outfit, the Bronx Parking Development Co., borrow $238 million to build and run a $300 million parking paradise on city land under a long-term lease. (The state supplied the balance of...

A-Rod just stuck out swinging to give Detroit the series and a trip to the ALCS finals. Final score 3-2.

The same morning that radical Islamic terrorists destroyed the twin towers, the Islamic Leadership School in the Bronx opened its doors for the first time. "I don't remember much," said student Ameena Drammeh, 14, who was just 3 years old on Sept. 11, 2001. "I just remember everyone running around [the school]. I remember all the phones ringing." As New Yorkers mourn the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the only Islamic school in the Bronx will mark a decade of promoting goodwill between Muslims and non-Muslims. "Because we opened on 9/11, we know 100% that Allah wants us to be a...

Hello, 911? Hey, I got your thief right here! Bronx auto-store clerk Nelson Lozanda made the call of duty yesterday, chasing and tackling a suspected shoplifter, then holding him down with one hand while phoning cops with the other. "There are a lot of thieves coming in here. They are thinking just because it's not our store, we are not going to respond to it," said Lozada, 23, one of two workers who grabbed the alleged perp about a block from an AutoZone store on East 149th Street. The drama started in the store at about noon when a man...

BRONX, NY (PIX11)— "I asked them to lower their voices and then they started in on me, 'Shut the f--- up, white boy. We'll beat the s--t out of you, cracker.'" Jason Fordell, 29, of the Bronx, said that was the first exchange he had with three black men and a Hispanic man on the #4 subway train near Grand Central early Sunday morning, and by the time the train got to Fordham Road, Fordell says he was being beaten and stomped by other passengers who were egging the original group on. "Eventually, half the car" joined in, Fordell told...

Snakes alive! - the cobra has been found. The Bronx Zoo's escaped snake was snared in the House of Reptiles on Thursday, six days after she slithered out of her enclosure. "We found our snake and we're very happy," Jim Breheny, the zoo's director, told the Daily News. The fanged fugitive was spotted coiled in a corner around 9 a.m., during one of three daily sweeps by a half-dozen zoo workers. Using special tongs and hooks, they easily apprehended the deadly Egyptian cobra, which is now under observation. "We knew it was going to be a game of patience. We...

A highly venomous Egyptian cobra that went missing at the Bronx Zoo was found Thursday after nearly a week on the lam in the reptile house, zoo officials said. The approximately 24-inch snake was found coiled in a dark corner of the reptile house, about 200 feet from where it had escaped from a holding cage outside the exhibit into a space described by officials as a labyrinth of pipes and equipment.

It's deadly, and it's out there, waiting. That might sound like the trailer for a campy monster flick, but it's a real concern at New York's Bronx Zoo, where officials and staff are scrambling to find a deadly Egyptian cobra that slithered away from its home last Friday and hasn't been seen since. The zoo's Reptile House remained closed Monday as a precaution while workers searched for the runaway reptile, a zoo spokeswoman confirmed to FoxNews.com. While the roughly 20-inch-long Egyptian cobra -- armed with a massive dose of lethal venom that it injects into its victims -- has been...

Fourteen people died on Saturday when a bus returning from a casino flipped onto its side on I-95 in the Bronx and was sliced in half by the support pole for a large sign. The bus driver told police he lost control after being clipped by a tractor trailer. Police began a search for the truck, which did not stop after the crash, according to New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne. There were at least 31 passengers aboard the bus and many of the injuries were the result of severe head trauma............

Students at Bronx high school pushed her to the ground A Bronx teacher suffered a miscarriage after breaking up a fight between two students over a chair, school officials said Thursday. Lissedia Batista, 27, was elbowed in the stomach, pushed, and fell to the floor as she tried to get in the middle of a fight between two students. Batista was four months pregnant and was taken by ambulance to North Centeral Bronx Hospital, where she miscarried her baby. The two students involved in the fight have been suspended.

Bronx teacher admits: I'm an ex-hookerBy KEVIN FASICK and YOAV GONEN Last Updated: 6:48 AM, September 27, 2010 Meet Melissa Petro -- the teacher who gives a new twist to "sex ed." The tattooed former hooker and stripper has been teaching art in a Bronx elementary school for three years, The Post has learned. Calling herself a "for mer sex worker," the well-liked teacher has been shockingly up front about her past -- posting online accounts of her sexcapades in Mexico and Lon don. But in her boldest move, the 30-year-old posted an essay this month claiming she also had...

Is it possible that the Bronx Four operated alone, without any connection to foreign terrorists. In an elaborate sting operation, four African-American Muslim men were arrested Wednesday night in New York City for attempting to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and for conspiring to shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, NY. James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen were friends who had met while serving time in prison and it was there that they converted to Islam. The bombs in their possession were fake; supplied to them by an FBI informant...

NEW YORK — For nearly a year, Shahed Hussain would slip into his role as a wealthy Pakistani businessman and head for Newburgh. He was “Maqsood” when he arrived at local mosque Masjid Al-Ikhlas driving a BMW, or maybe Hummer depending on the day. He was there to listen for Islamic extremism and report back to the FBI, he said. Hussain testified on Friday in the federal trial of four Newburgh men accused of trying to shoot down planes at Stewart Air National Guard Base and blow up a synagogue and Jewish center in the Bronx. The men — James...

Twisted trees and downed power lines littered the streets of the Bronx and Long Island this morning after strong storms that broke a lengthy heat wave ripped through the region Sunday afternoon, bringing cooler weather but leaving scores without power. And on Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed what many Bronx residents already believed: A tornado touched down in the Riverdale neighborhood on Sunday. Officials said the twister struck at approximately 2:50 to 3 p.m., and cut a swath 100 yards wide and 0.6 miles long. The maximum wind speeds were around 100 mph, according to the weather service....

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/harrison.ind.htm JULY 9, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLACK MARKET TRAVEL AGENTS 38 DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD LOCAL INVESTIGATION EXPOSES NATIONWIDE NETWORK THAT USED STOLEN IDENTITIES, CREDIT CARDS TO PURCHASE AIRLINE TICKETS KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 38 defendants from across the United States have been charged in a series of indictments that allege an extensive network of black market travel agents who used the stolen identities of thousands of victims as part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme...