At just 16, thug charged with shoving a granny has 5 arrests
He is just 16 and has already been arrested five times for violent robberies and assaults — including one in which he allegedly pushed a Queens granny down church steps, sending her to the hospital.
Teen brute Jayvaun Prince mugged another woman just days before he shoved 68-year-old regular churchgoer Irene Tahliambouris, leaving her with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain, prosecutors say.
After his arrest Thursday for the April 7 attack on Tahliambouris, he also was charged in the April 4 mugging, in which he allegedly threatened a 50-year-old woman into handing over her wallet and keys and stole her car.
But it was far from Prince’s first time in cuffs.
Outrage abounds
Sources said the teen was arrested twice, in August and September, and charged with six robberies in all that took place in Queens in August.
He was also arrested twice for misdemeanor assaults, in December 2023 and then again Feb. 2, according to law enforcement sources.
He is also wanted in connection with the robbery of a delivery person Feb. 4, the sources said Friday.
The teen’s latest arrest involving Tahliambouris sparked outrage from her family and police officials, who wondered why he was out on the streets despite his lengthy rap sheet.
“Absolutely shocking that this heinous crime was committed by a 16year-old!” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell wrote on X on Friday.
“A teenager who has had multiple felony arrests, robberies of women and yet he is walking around the streets,” Chell wrote. “Obviously he needs help! Irene represents all of our moms, grandmothers, and everything else. Why is this happening?
This was avoidable! What part of the process broke down and allowed this to happen ???? ”
In a statement to Fox News on Friday, Tahliambouris’ family blamed state laws for emboldening criminals.
“Criminals feel comfortable doing things to helpless people because the laws in our state do not hold them accountable,” said the statement. “The recidivism rate of criminal felonies is high, yet the state refuses to change laws to remand them to jail or charge them to the fullest extent of the law.
“We are seeing an increase in petty crimes that are no longer able to be prosecuted, and those people are going on to commit violent crimes, yet Albany and NYC refuse to make the necessary changes to the law to ensure these criminals are held accountable.”
Video of the vicious attack showed the suspect stalking Tahliambouris as she walked up to St. Demetrios Greek
Orthodox Church in Briarwood.
He got in front of her and punted her down the steps while standing on the top landing, footage obtained by The Post shows.
As the grandmother lay on the ground, the brute picked her pockets and stole her purse before bolting in her 2006 Nissan Altima.
Days earlier, Prince was involved in a strikingly similar case, when he cornered that victim inside an elevator at a building on 127th Avenue in Rochdale Village, telling her he had followed her from a bank, where she withdrew money, prosecutors said.
He demanded she fork over the cash and her keys as he put his hand in his pocket and simulated a gun, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Prince then made a beeline for the exit and took off in the victim’s Toyota Corolla, prosecutors said.
He faces a number of charges in that case, including robbery, grand larceny and menacing, the DA’s office said.
The teen’s open cases include the string of robberies from Queens in August — and his mugshot photo from that arrest helped link him to the violent church crime, police sources said.
Sources said the teen attempted suicide Friday by wrapping his sweatshirt around his neck at the 107th Precinct stationhouse.
He was brought out in a stretcher and hospitalized but was not seriously injured, the sources said.
It’s unclear when he will be arraigned in the two latest cases.
On Friday, Tahliambouris remained in critical but stable condition, unable to stand or move on her own, the DA’s office said.
The Rev. Konstantinos Kalogridis, pastor of St. Demetrios, told The Post on Friday that he visited Tahliambouris two days ago — and she is doing “much better.”
“I saw her in the hospital,” Kalogridis said in a phone interview. “She has a good team of doctors taking care of her and the love of her family and the community.”