Raising cash for tragic tot
HEARTBROKEN co-workers of a Brooklyn woman strangled and thrown down a flight of stairs have begun a fund-raising drive to benefit her 2-year-old daughter.
The Manhattan-based Complete Body fitness centers set up a Gofundme page in memory of Tonie Wells, who was murdered Wednesday in her Crown Heights home.
Her husband Barry Wells, 29, is awaiting charges and under psychiatric observation after telling cops he wanted to kill himself.
Complete Body office manager Oksana Ivanova said Tonie Wells was recently promoted to front desk manager after three years at the company’s Hanover Square branch.
“We all knew her very well,” Ivanova said. “She was like the soul of the company. Everyone is in shock. She was like sunshine for everyone getting in in the morning.”
Complete Body CEO Alex Reznik called her “beautiful inside and out.”
“It’s like a bad dream,” he said. “She looked like a model, but was very humble and even a little shy.”
Ivanova said the fund was originally created to provide a place for employees to donate to the family. But they later broadened the plea.
“Everyone is distraught and we wanted to help out the family,” she said. “We shared the fund on Facebook hoping to collect more funds. The funeral is going to be expensive. And she has a 2-yearold daughter. She brought her daughter to work a few times.”
The page has raised $7,175 of their $50,000 goal. The gofundme page is at www.Gofundme/toniewells. AN OFF-DUTY cop arrested on drug charges in lower Manhattan had two baggies of cocaine in his pants pocket, court records show.
Detective Timothy O’Brien, 35, was arraigned Thursday night after his 2:30 p.m. arrest during a car stop.
A judge ordered O’Brien released on his own recognizance.
An Internal Affairs Bureau sergeant told prosecutors that O’Brien was driving with a suspended license when he was pulled over.
The arresting sergeant found the drugs in the detective’s jeans.
O’Brien admitted it was cocaine, the records show. He is charged with drug possession and aggravated unlicensed driving and has been suspended.