Free Republic

Three people died and at least three others suffered gunshot wounds as a wave of pre-Christmas carnage swept the city on Friday night and Saturday morning, authorities said. The violence kicked off in the Bronx around 7:30 p.m. when 19-year-old Edward Melina was killed by a gunshot wound to his torso. Melina was shot in a dispute that unfolded on East Tremont Avenue near Crotona Avenue. He was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital but could not be saved. The bloodshed continued in Brownsville, Brooklyn when police found a 36-year-old man shot to death at the Kingsborough houses at around 2...

Pandemonium broke out in the heart of Manhattan on Saturday when two men were shot on the ice at the popular Bryant Park skating rink just after 11 p.m., the police said. One man was shot in the torso and one in the leg. Both were recovering at Bellevue Hospital Center. A skater, Francis, 17, who gave only his first name, said he was behind one of the victims when the shots were fired. He said the shooter was standing among tourists who were taking pictures outside of the rink. Then he pulled a gun. “He took out a gun...

Cops are hunting for the gunman they believe allegedly fired the stray bullet that killed a 24-year-old mother outside a Brooklyn housing development. Corey Brown, 21, allegedly opened fire in the courtyard of the Lafayette Gardens houses when an errant shot hit Nicoleia Taylor in the chest about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, sources said. -snip- “She was a hard-working mother who just got caught in crossfire from some hooligans who need to get a life,” said her sister, Sheohnna. “It was a (expletive) who didn’t know how to shoot, who didn’t get his aim right.”

Today’s New York Times features an in-depth look at the radical background of Bill de Blasio, the man poised to become the next mayor of New York. De Blasio is a longtime admirer and supporter of Nicaragua’s Marxist Sandinistas. He helped raise funds for the Sandinistas in the 1980s, subscribed to the party’s newspaper, Barricadda (Barricade), and unlike many others, remained supportive even after the Sandinistas lost power. To this day de Blasio speaks admiringly of the Sandinistas (while offering some token criticism of their handling of dissent), and remains interested in the Latin American left. De Blasio honeymooned in...