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No one covers the city like the Daily News. For more than a century, New York’s Hometown Newspaper has been your eyes and ears — and your voice. Do you have a story you think we should tell? Call us at (212) 210-NEWS or email us at news@ nydailynews.com. This is your paper, and we are committed to covering the issues that matter to you. Here are some of our top stories from the past week:
There’s no place like home: A Kansas tourist visiting the Big Apple headed back to the Sunflower State on Wednesday after he was struck by a stray bullet while walking near Times Square. Chris Ruby, 44, was by the corner of Eighth Ave. and W. 38th St. at around 2:15 a.m. when a gunman opened fire at a rival, cops said. EMS rushed Ruby to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors discovered the bullet had fractured his collarbone. Later on Wednesday, cops arrested 21-year-old Brannovan Martinez, who was charged with assault, criminal use of a firearm and reckless endangerment for allegedly firing the shots.
Family tragedy: A 9-year-old girl’s birthday ended in a bloodbath Monday after her ex-con father murdered his girlfriend and her two daughters inside their Brooklyn apartment. Joseph McCrimon, 46, opened fire in the Van Dyke Houses at around 11:20 p.m., fatally shooting his girlfriend Rasheeda Barzey, 45, and her daughters, Solei Spears, 20, and Chloe Spears, 16. The deranged dad was later found dead two blocks away from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. McCrimon’s 9-year-old daughter dialed 911 after her father left the apartment. “Daddy was coming over for my birthday and he shot them,” she wept in her brave call to the 911 dispatcher. Friends and family mourned the hardworking mother and her daughters, the eldest a junior at Baruch College, the other a high schooler.
Safe at sea: NRA leader Wayne LaPierre said in Texas federal bankruptcy court Monday that he had to hole up in a friend’s 108-foot yacht when faced with a “security threat” following the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and a Parkland, Fla., high school. The pro-gun boss said the vessel was one of the few places where he felt safe in the wake of national outrage over the slaying of children with military-grade firearms. “This was the one place that I hope could feel safe, where I remember getting there going, ‘Thank God I’m safe, nobody can get me here,’ ” he told the court. The testimony came on the first day of a hearing over the NRA’s decision to file for bankruptcy in Texas to avoid a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued to dissolve the NRA over allegations the group’s leaders lived extravagantly off of members’ money. LaPierre testified later in the week that hunting African wildlife on the dime of NRA vendors was just part of his job.
Finally finished: Gov. Cuomo and lawmakers approved a dayslate $212 billion state budget Tuesday that will include new taxes on the wealthy, COVID-19 relief for renters and businesses, the legalization of mobile sports betting and a fund for “excluded workers.” The pols blew through the budget’s April 1 deadline due to heated debate over several key issues, including funds for undocumented immigrants and longsought increases in taxes on the state’s richest residents. Passing the spending plan was also complicated by $12.6 billion in federal COVID relief funds and a number of scandals swirling around the Cuomo administration — including state legislators’ calls for the governor to resign over sexual harassment allegations.