Gunfight in Williamsburg Leaves a Couple Dead, Victim’s Father in Hospital

A Shakespearean-like tragedy unfolded in Williamsburg on Monday night and left a couple dead, and the woman’s father in the hospital, according to police.
After Audeliz Velez of Brooklyn allegedly killed his girlfriend, Janette Velez of Queens, the victim’s 78-year-old father, who was present at the time, shot and killed his daughter’s murderer.
Velez allegedly killed the mother of his child after the two got into an argument. Upon discovering his daughter murdered, the victim’s father got into a gunfight with his daughter’s killer. He fatally shot Velez in the torso, but during the scuttle, the elderly man was shot in the shoulder, police say. He is in stable condition and recovering at Bellevue Hospital.
No charges have been filed against the victim’s father yet.

Election Night Arrests Still Causing Controversy

Election night arrests are still a hot topic in Williamsburg. A group of hipsters attended a meeting at the 94th Precinct last week, venting their frustration at police for the rough turn of events that night. However, longtime residents responded harshly to their s claims, with one man saying, according to the article, “The police reacted with too much restraint,” and “You people think you can just break the law and create anarchy.” Read the whole story here.

Election Night Arrests: An Eyewitness Account

Williamsburg was the place to be on election night. After the results were announced, the streets were full of people celebrating, many breaking out into spontaneous song and dance. You can check out my live reporting from Zabloski’s to get a better sense of the mood.

Unfortunately, it turned ugly on Bedford Avenue at around 2 am, when police tried to clear the streets and fights broke out, with the high of the evening ending in three arrests and five summonses. One of those arrested was Ben Lord, the drummer for the Williamsburg-based band Up the Empire.

His friend and band-mate, Dan Hewins, provided the Williamsburg Ink with his eyewitness account of the night’s events: “There was major revelry, and it was amazing. My friends and I got calls and texts from other friends telling us about the impromptu gathering at the intersection of Bedford and North 7th St. and as we approached we couldn’t contain our excitement. There were people dancing, chanting, hugging strangers, stripping, and cheering the election of Obama. It was friendly, peaceful and fun. People had clogged the streets and were hanging out of windows and on nearby fire escapes. At one point people, in response to the vision of a man with a large American Flag draped over him, spontaneously sang the National Anthem together. I have to say, that is something I would never have expected and it was surreal while, at the same time, heartwarming and patriotic. The mood was of elation and celebration.”

After about an hour, Hewins said things turned ugly. “At some point some police, who had been there the whole time, decided that the group had been blocking the streets for too long and started to attempt to clear the streets, having people move onto the sidewalks to make way for traffic. This mostly worked, as the police were being friendly (while firm) and people were generally complying. There were a few folks who apparently don’t like being told what to do, especially by the police, who were not really cooperating but doing nothing that I would consider ill-spirited. But it wasn’t at all clear that the police wanted everyone to leave the intersection. Most of them were just asking that we get on the sidewalk to make way for traffic. They never used a loudspeaker or megaphone to give the entire group instructions. So, the situation intensified when police in riot gear (helmets and shields) made their way down Bedford Ave. from North 6th towards North 7th. (Apparently, as I was told later by an officer involved, that those police had been there doing nothing for quite a while before they moved into the intersection.) This was a sight that I think set people off. The sight of a group of officers in riot gear is a bit unsettling, especially when there was no protesting going on, only celebration. So, as things often do, they turned worse. When people in the crowd were not cooperating as quickly as the police would have liked some pushing and shoving ensued and the police started getting more and more physical. This led to more physicality and eventually the wrestling down of Ben by a handful of officers and in the melee, my girlfriend being knocked down into garbage bags and her hand stepped on. This, I’m sure happened to a couple of other people as well. There were scores of cameras, still and video, capturing this. At this point Ben was taken away.”

You can watch Ben’s arrest here. He is now awaiting a court date.

Dan said he felt that the methods used by the police “were just too rough.” Paul J. Browne, a spokesperson for the police department, said that police decided to take action because “A large group that had blocked traffic on a large commercial thoroughfare was asked to move. Those who failed to comply were subject to summons or arrest.” I asked police if the severe response was warranted. Browne would only say, “There were many other large gatherings that night without incident.”

More Protest Photos

Charrette Protest on Flickr

Charrette, Not Charade

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Chanting “charrette not charade,” nearly 100 Brooklyn residents gathered outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall to demand that the city include them in the development of the Broadway Triangle this afternoon.

As the city moves forward with plans to build residential developments in the Triangle, a 30-acre industrial area bound by Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, housing advocates, elected officials and community organizers are asking that a new charrette – design meeting – take place with all stakeholders having a seat at the table. Since a charrette was held in 2007 with only a select group of stakeholders, residents who were left out say they need to have a say in the future of the area, especially since it may hold at least a partial solution to the lack of affordable housing in those neighborhoods.

Over 40 community-based organizations protested on the steps as a scoping session on the future of the area was taking place inside.

“A large sector of the community was left out, was never invited to the table,” said Juan Ramos, co-chair of the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition. “Our vision goes unheard even though we, in good faith, have tried to engage every organization and HPD (Department of Housing Preservation and Development) itself. HPD hasn’t responded, so we’re here.”

Ramos, like others at the rally, said, “We want our voice to be heard. We’re not going to listen to them until they start listening to us.”

Protest on the Broadway Triangle

After an unsuccessful attempt to hold another charrette, which I wrote about previously, housing advocates are organizing to protest development plans for the Broadway Triangle. This media advisory was sent out this afternoon:

Brooklyn Residents to Protest City’s Development Plans

Over one hundred residents and community leaders from Williamsburg,
Bushwick, and Bedford-Stuyvesant will gather along with their elected
representatives in protest of City-sponsored redevelopment plans for the
Broadway Triangle section of north Brooklyn at a public scoping session
on Monday, November 17th at 3pm in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209
Joralemon Street, Brooklyn.

The City’s Broadway Triangle rezoning plan is the result of a planning
process which excluded the majority of community members living and
working around the Triangle.  Many perceive that they were left out
because of long simmering racial, ethnic, and political divisions
prevalent in the area.  The Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, made
up of over 40 local churches, tenant associations, day care centers, and
non-profit organizations, has asked the City to postpone its plans until
the entire community has had an opportunity to come together and express
its vision for the area.

WHAT:    Over one hundred north Brooklyn residents and their elected
representatives protest to the lack of public input into City-sponsored
development plans for the Broadway Triangle.

WHEN:    Monday, November 17th at 3PM

WHERE:    Brooklyn Borough Hall
209 Joralemon Street  (between Court Street  and Brooklyn Bridge Blvd.)

WHO:    The protest will be sponsored by the Broadway Triangle Community
Coalition.

Directions to event:  By subway, 2, 3, 4, 5, or R train to Brooklyn
Borough Hall.

Charrette Controversy

A missing invitation is causing a stir in Williamsburg.

Latino housing advocacy groups like Los Sures and St. Nick are angry that the city has included the United Jewish Organization (UJO), representing the nabe’s Hassidim, in the redevelopment of the Broadway Triangle, and left them out.

The Broadway Triangle, an area bound by Williamsburg, Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, is currently zoned for industrial use, but is being redeveloped for residential purposes. So, as high-rise developments abound in the area, affordable housing advocates want to claim the land for their constituents needs.

The infamous invitation was to a planning charrette, or design hearing, on the Broadway Triangle, and never made its way to Latino groups or City Council Member Diana Reyna. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) would not explain why they were so exclusive with their invitations, providing ones only to UJO and Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council.

After the shock from the initial rejection wore off, Latino groups organized a second charrette with UJO and Ridgewood-Bushwick that was to take place in early September. However, the charrette was canned at the last minute, with no one group or person taking responsibility for the cancellation. HPD said it was not them. Rabbi David Niederman of UJO said it was not him. Angela Battaglia of Ridgewood-Bushwick did not return calls for comment.

Meanwhile, Latino housing advocates are left fuming. “I was appalled,” said Debra Medina, the organizer of Southside United Housing. “Actually, I was pissed off.” Medina said affordable housing is essential for members of the Latino community that are being displaced by gentrification. “We need to be involved in everything that happens in this community, and leaving us out is beyond belief,” she said.

The one person who was willing to explain the initial lack of an invitation was Assembly Member Vito Lopez. Lopez described Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council as “one of the leading affordable housing non-profits in the country,” and stressed the need for “an agency that has a record,” to be in charge of the development of the Broadway Triangle. “I have nothing against Los Sures and St. Nick,” Lopez said. However, in the case of a large project like the Broadway Triangle, he said, “you don’t go to a group that hasn’t done large-scale” development.

Hello Williamsburg!

Welcome to Williamsburg Ink, a blog dedicated to updating Williamsburg residents about important issues in the community. On this blog you can read about the latest gossip and news in Williamsburg politics and local happenings, and also have access to longer features on the nabe, or other Brooklyn areas, by linking to our website, www.thebrooklynink.com.