Man Wanted for Robbery Plunges to Death During Gang Roundup
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Version 0 of 1. A robbery suspect, apparently under the false impression that law enforcement officers rounding up suspected gang members in the Bronx were actually looking for him, fell from the sixth floor of a building to his death on Wednesday as he tried to hide, the police said. The man, Geovanni Martin, 21, plunged from a window at 693 East 236th Street in the Wakefield neighborhood, at an apartment building where New York City police officers and United States marshals had executed an arrest warrant for someone else moments earlier, according to the police. Mr. Martin was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center. The police said Mr. Martin, who was visiting the building, was standing on a front fire escape when the officers and marshals were leaving the building with the suspect, around 5:45 a.m. They ordered Mr. Martin to go inside, and he complied, according to the police. But when the officers went back upstairs, the police said, they found him hanging from a different window ledge at the back of the building, apparently trying to hide. Unable to support himself, he lost his grip and fell to the ground, the police said. Mr. Martin was not the subject of the warrant, but the police said he was a suspect in five robberies dating back to August in the Bronx on Monterey Avenue, Clinton Avenue and East 183rd Street. The victims were all women who ranged in age from 43 to 62, and were robbed mostly of jewelry and money, the police said. Mr. Martin was the youngest of three brothers who immigrated from Jamaica and grew up in the Bronx, his father, Desmond Martin, said. He liked soccer, and a friend said he had dreams of opening a restaurant. But he dropped out of high school and, two years ago, he moved out of his father’s place, Desmond Martin said. “I’m in a dark place,” Mr. Martin said. “Right now, I’m thinking about how to get some money to bury him. What can I do?” The police, whose raid focused on rival street gangs accused of several killings and drug trafficking, had come to the Wakefield building looking for Dequan Reid, who, according to Mr. Reid’s sister, Tenisha Monroe, was good friends with Mr. Martin. She said her brother had surrendered that morning at the top-floor apartment where they live. As the officers escorted Mr. Reid to a waiting patrol car, Ms. Reid said, a person yelled that someone was on the fire escape. She said she heard officers behind the building shouting, “He’s hanging, he’s hanging, get off of there, get off of there!” Then, “a big thud.” |