Party Crasher Kills Woman at Surprise Birthday Party

A young Queens woman was killed by a party crasher who fired shots through a closed door after she helped toss him from the bash Sunday, cops and her family said.

Avalisa Morris, 26, had planned the surprise party in St. Albans for a close friend's birthday. She spent all day Saturday cooking Caribbean food for the special occasion, her stunned family said.

"She was a people pleaser," said her great-uncle, Spencer Grant. "She was in the act of doing something kind and suffered a senseless death."

The man who crashed the party at a two-story home on 119th Road came to see a female guest over a previous dispute, police and Morris' family said.

He was kicked out and had a basement door locked behind him shortly before 4:30a.m. Morris was the one who made sure the party crasher and others involved in the argument didn't get back inside.

"She was at the door, and the people that were fighting went outside," said her cousin, Larrissa Whyte, who was at the party.

"And she closed the door, and she was standing by the door to make sure that they didn't come back in."

Furious over getting the boot, the party crasher ruthlessly fired at least two rounds through the closed door. Morris was hit in the head and the abdomen, police said. She fell to the floor and died.

Whyte, who helped Morris plan the party, was upstairs when the gunfire set off pandemonium in the basement.

"Everybody ran up the stairs to come out the front door," Whyte told the Daily News outside the party as detectives investigated her cousin's murder.

"I was looking for her, and somebody said she got shot. So I went downstairs."

Whyte broke down in tears as she recalled finding her mortally wounded cousin lying on the floor, just inside the basement door.

The killer fled the scene. Police said two people were being questioned at the 113rd Precinct stationhouse early last night.

As detectives worked to catch the killer, Morris' loved ones grieved at a family home in Springfield Gardens, Queens. Grant, Morris' great-uncle, described her as "so friendly and so, so courteous."

"Every time I seen her, it was always a hug and a smile," he said. "I never saw her angry."

Morris worked as a personal banker at a Capitol One branch in Queens. She was born in Jamaica and came to the U.S. a dozen years ago. The party was for a friend who worked at the Macy's in Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, L.I.

"She cooked all day," said Morris' aunt, Audrelyn Anderson, remembering how Morris spent Saturday cooking for the party. She made Caribbean dishes like oxtail, goat, and rice and peas.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/02/06/2011-02-06_woman_shot_at_birthday_bash_by_party_crasher.html#ixzz1DHnu8Kqv

Car falls on Bronx immigrant from West Africa in freak accident

A West African immigrant was crushed to death Saturday in the Bronx in a freak accident while loading a vehicle into a container truck, police said.

Abdul Barry, 49, met the gruesome end as he moved the Toyota pickup - bound for resale on his home continent - into a container hooked up to a truck cab, witnesses said.

The accident happened about 3:45 p.m. at Drake St. and Randall Ave. in Hunts Point.

"His wife just had a baby - his second daughter - one month ago," said his cousin, Issie Barrie, 32, who stood with friends and other relatives in the freezing rain at the accident scene hours after it occurred.

Through tears and choking sobs, Barrie, who lived with her cousin, said, "He's never seen his second child. Now he'll never see her."

Barry was standing inside the container when chains that suspended the truck above him snapped and sent the vehicle crashing down on him, witnesses said.

"He came here to do well for himself and for his family," said friend Ousmane Bah, 43. "He worked seven days a week. He came here for a better life and he worked so hard."

Barry, a former cab driver in Africa, immigrated from West Guinea in 2005, leaving behind his wife and a daughter who is now 11. His second child was born a month ago.

Selling vehicles was one of several ways he supported his family.

He also ran a Bronx storefront where he sold socks and T-shirts.

He last visited his native country three months ago, friends said.

"He was a nice guy, very nice," cried Barrie. "He loved me and he did everything for my children, and in my heart I feel so bad."

Another friend welled up with tears as he viewed the scene of the horrific accident.

"I feel so sorry for him," said Mamadou Sow, 46. "He was an honest man. I'll remember him. I'll remember him as a good man."

Barry was with one of his brothers when the accident occurred.

Hours later, that brother stood in the rain, still stunned and staring at the container truck.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2011/02/06/2011-02-06_crushed_to_death_car_falls_on_him_in_bizarre_bx_accident.html#ixzz1DEnVvhIG

Man Killed after Falling into Tortilla Mixer

A video camera captured the gruesome death of a Guatemalan immigrant who was sucked into a dough-mixing machine at a Brooklyn tortilla factory Monday.

Juan Baten, 22, was fatally crushed when one of his arms got caught in the waist-high tub at the Tortilleria Chinantla factory on Grand St. in Williamsburg.

"I'm still in shock," said widow Rosario Ramirez, fighting tears as she described how Baten toiled at the minimum-wage job to support their 7-month-old daughter and his four brothers in Guatemala.

A surveillance video showed Baten repeatedly reached into the machine to press the dough and speed up the mixing, cop sources said.

At one point, he reached too far down and his arm was snagged on one of the mixer's rotating blades.

The machine then pulled him inside the large vat, and the mechanical arms crushed his head and chest, sources said.

The medical examiner ruled it an accident, but the NYPD and Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating.

OSHA said it had no record of prior violations. State records show the company failed a health inspection in June but passed a followup in October.

Before Baten left for his fateful shift at the factory, he played happily with his infant daughter Daisy Stefanie at his tiny Bushwick apartment.

"She always made him happy," Ramirez, 23, said as candles burned on either side of a picture of the young family.

Baten came to America six years ago after his father was hit by a bus and killed in Cabral, Guatemala, Ramirez said.

He worked at the factory without legal documents, earning $7.25 an hour for the grueling 5 p.m.-to-2 a.m. shift.

"He worked six days a week, nine hours a day," she said. "He didn't complain. He liked his job."

Ramirez said she had asked him to find other work so he could spend more time with their daughter, but he refused, saying his bosses were nice.

"He did everything so we could have a better life," Ramirez added. She said she will bury her husband in his homeland - a cruel end to the couple's dream of moving back to Guatemala someday.

Ramirez hopes she will get some support from the company's owners, who could not be reached for comment.

"I don't know what we are going to do," she said, cradling her daughter.

Baten always called from work to check on his wife at 10 p.m., she said.

"He would call to say hi. It was normal. When I spoke to him [Sunday] it was the same," she recalled. "I didn't think about it. It was the last time I spoke to him."

She choked up. "He told me and our daughter, 'I'll see you later.'"

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/01/24/2011-01-24_worker_at_brooklyn_tortilla_factory_crushed_to_death_after_fall_into_mixing_mach.html#ixzz1CHMYmfsh

Locked Out Partier Falls to Death

A bridge-and-tunnel partier tragically plummeted to his death at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Herald Square this morning after becoming locked out in the cold on a lower-floor roof, cops said.

Moon Nam, 23, of Jersey City had checked into the Manhattan hotel with pals after spending a night on the town with pals, sources said. He woke up at 6 a.m. to head home.

But he inexplicably took a freight elevator in an attempt to get to the lobby, police said.

The dazed-and-confused Nam wound up on a different floor and at some point entered a rear stairwell on the fifth floor, where he walked through an exit door, leading him on to a set-back roof.

The door then slammed shut behind Nam, leaving him alone and outside in the early-morning cold, cops said.

Nam either tried to yell down for help to passers-by on West 32nd Street or attempted to climb down himself, according to police.

That’s when he slipped and fell to his death, officials said. The incident has been ruled an accident.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/locked_out_partier_falls_to_death_c6zEiLMbYOzm0xsnihGGqM#ixzz1BvSXjJfc

Staten Island Jets Fan's Celebration Turns Fatal

A Staten Island man who decided to celebrate the Jets’ stunning upset of the New England Patriots yesterday by going sledding on his driveway was killed after he skidded into the street and was struck by an SUV, cops said.

Raymond Larsen, 46, had been watching the game in his home on Cleveland Avenue in Great Kills when he went outside around 8:50 p.m. with a plastic disc to use as a sled.

A police source said it’s believed he’d been drinking while watching the game.

After Larsen landed in the middle of the road, a 2006 Hyundai SUV ran him over.

He was rushed to Staten Island University South, where he died.

The driver stayed at the scene and no charges were filed.

via: nypost.com

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/staten_island/staten_island_jets_fan_sledding_fV2IYp9HmqwpjlBPsZXzgL#ixzz1BJ91AcQm

GPS directs driver to death in Spain's largest reservoir

The Spanish Red Cross reported a 37-year-old man died on Saturday night after driving his car into a reservoir near the western town of Capilla.

"It seems the GPS system pointed them on to an old road that ends in the reservoir, and that in the dark they were unable to brake in time, with the car taking just a couple of minutes to sink," the Red Cross said in a statement.

The victim and a single passenger were driving home towards the southern city of Seville after working at a street fair when the Peugeot 306 ploughed straight into the waters of La Serena reservoir.

Although both men managed to get out of the car, only one made it to the shore. Red Cross divers found the body of the unnamed driver at the bottom of the reservoir on Sunday morning.

Via theguardian.co.uk

Students Discover Classmate's Brain In Jar On Field Trip

In a field trip to the Richmond County Mortuary, some Staten Island teenagers made a ghastly discovery: their former classmate's brain on display in a jar. Jesse Shipley, 17, died in a car crash in 2005, and medical examiner Dr. Stephen de Roux took the license to keep the teen's brain. It was discovered on the field trip months later, and the Shipley's have now gotten permission to sue the city, even though they're saying they did nothing wrong.

One of the students told the Daily News, "There was a case that you could see through, and there were brains in jars and names on the jars. One said 'head trauma, Shipley, J.'" Jesse's girlfriend also happened to be on the trip and "went outside and was flipping out. She started crying and called her mom and said, 'Mom, Jesse's brain is here! I can't be here.'" However, de Roux stands by his decision to keep the brain for testing, saying, "I wait months, until I have six brains, and then it's kind of worth while to make the trip to Staten Island to examine six brains. It doesn't make sense for him to come and do one."

via gothamist.com

Justice William F. Mastro called the incident "a surreal coincidence," but ruled, "While the medical examiner has the statutory authority to ... perform an autopsy ... and to remove and retain bodily organs for further examination and testing ... he or she, also has the mandated obligation ... to turn over the decedent's remains to the next of kin for preservation and proper burial once the legitimate purposes for retention of those remains have been fulfilled." The Shipley's lawyer, Marvin Ben-Aron, was disappointed that the ruling implies the ME has "an unfettered right" over the organ, and the court denied his motion to sue for damages over the brain's public display. The suit alleges the jar was labeled, "This is what happens when you drink and drive," even though alcohol was not involved in the accident, and Shipley was the passenger, not the driver.