Murders in city hit new low
said after the verdict, crying.
Another juror, Jo Ann Jacobsen, 65, said there was a “tremendous amount of negligence” by the city. She noted that in 2006 a teacher in Oklahoma botched the same demonstration, burning two.
“(Yanes’) testimony was sad because he was trying to be strong. He was 16! He may never have a girlfriend. He may never have a family. I just feel really bad for him,” Jacobsen said. “It’s happened before, so why would you take that chance?
“He’s a great kid. An amazing kid. He has amazing parents,” the juror from the East Village added before embracing Yvonne Yanes.
Alonzo only appeared in court the two days he was on the stand. He described being set on fire and the hellish skin graft procedures that required he be held in a crucifix position for five days at a time. One of his goals, he said, was a pain-free day.
“I was still burning, I was still on fire … I remember feeling the fire eat away at my skin, eat away at my flesh. It was charring me the same way that a piece of meat chars in a frying pan,” he said.
“This was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. Nothing’s even comparable — it was unreal.”
Much of his ears were missing. He struggled to regulate his temperature due to permanent damage to his sweat glands. Yanes said he’d become more socially isolated since the fire and was unsure if he’d ever have a girlfriend.
“Every day is a nightmare. Sometimes I get visions and revisit certain moments. Sometimes I wake up shaking a little bit. You have to tell yourself to go back to sleep even though you might revisit memories you don’t want to,” he said.
“They’re burned into my memory.”
Poole trembled throughout the roughly three-week trial and appeared to have been deeply traumatized. She said she could not remember the moments leading up to the fireball but insisted she’d done the demonstration just as she had done in previous classes.
City attorney Mark Mixson argued the cause of the fire was a mystery. The city will argue the verdict is excessive, he said. The city had sought an award of $5 million in damages. Rubinowitz had asked for $70 million.
“The well-being of students is the top priority of the Department of Education and this chemistry experiment is no longer used in any classroom as a result of this tragic accident,” a Law Department spokesman said. “While we respect the jury’s verdict, we are exploring our legal options to reduce the award to an amount that is consistent with awards that have been upheld by the courts in similar cases.”
Education Department investigators determined months after that Poole caused the fireball by pouring the jug of methanol directly onto dishes that had just been on fire. Witnesses testified she attempted to restart the demonstration involving methanol, mineral salts and flames for students arriving late to class.
Poole now works for the Education Department’s central office instructing other teachers on best classroom practices. With half of 2019 on the books, New York is on track for its lowest homicide tally since the 1950s — even as shootings across the city spiked by 7%.
The city recorded 135 homicides as of June 30, compared with 156 over the first half of 2018, police statistics show. If the trend continues, the city could see 272 homicides by year’s end.
The number of murders in the city bottomed out at 243 in 1950. The previous low since then was in 2017, when the city counted 292 killings.
Citywide, the NYPD responded to 361 shootings so far this year, with 414 victims. That’s up from 337 shootings with 411 victims in the first half of 2018.
“The NYPD will continue to focus on gun violence and the criminals who cause it in our unceasing efforts to ensure New York City remains the safest big city in America,” said NYPD spokesman Phillip Walzak.
This year’s drop in killings appear to be driven by significant decreases in the Bronx and the southern part of Brooklyn, even as murders spiked in Manhattan and Staten Island.
The Bronx has seen a 35% drop in slayings yearto-date, from 54 in 2018 to 35 in 2019.
Brooklyn has seen a 17% drop in homicides year to date, from 54 in 2018 to 45 in 2019.
Queens has seen a 10% drop in homicides so far in 2019 — a drop from 29 year-to-date in 2018 to 26 so far this year.
Borough-wide, Manhattan has seen 21 killings so far this year, compared to 15 in the first half of 2018 — a jump of 40%.
A single bloody week on Staten Island last week pushed the number of homicides up from 4 to 8 this year.