New York News Alert

TORRANCE, Calif. — Los Angeles Bishop David O’Connell’s suspected killer “walked his dog,” neighbors told The Post . Police arrested a suspect early Monday in O’Connell’s brutal Saturday murder , but did not immediately name him. Neighbor Francisco Medina, who lives two houses down from the possible suspect, said dozens of squad cars rushed his usually quiet block in Torrance, Calif. around 4:15 a.m. this morning.  The standoff lasted a few hours and Medina, 74, said he heard cops shout the suspect’s first name into his home, saying “Carlos, Come outside!” The suspect’s wife was the bishop’s dog walker, according to Medina, who said the alleged killer also occasionally walked the cleric’s dog.  Bishop David O’Connell, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, attending a news conference at the Fall General Assembly meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Nov. 17, 2021, in Baltimore. AP Candles and messages are left near O’Connell’s ...

The discovery of an alligator in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Sunday was shocking to many New Yorkers, but the scaly reptiles are actually rescued more often in New York City than you might think. Godzilla the Gator was discovered in Prospect Park’s lake early Sunday morning, in a “very lethargic and possibly cold-shocked” state near the park’s Duck Island. Parks Department employees snapped the animal out of the water and brought it (Godzilla’s gender remains unclear) to Animal Care Centers’ Brooklyn location. Godzilla the Gator may have shocked NYC but he’s hardly the first of his kind to end up here. NYC Parks The gator was then brought to the Bronx Zoo for recuperation. A zoo spokesperson had no further comment on Monday regarding Godzilla’s condition nor what they plan to do with the reptile. The Parks Department believes that Godzilla was a domesticated pet who had been dumped and abandoned by its owner, who may have adopted the gator as a baby before being overwhelm...

Prosecutors have dropped the possibility of a sentence enhancement that could have carried a mandatory five-year sentence against Alec Baldwin in a fatal film-set shooting, according to new court filings made public Monday. The actor-producer’s attorneys had earlier objected to the enhancement, saying it was unconstitutional because it was added after the October 2021 shooting. “The prosecutors committed a basic legal error by charging Mr. Baldwin under a version of the firearm-enhancement statue that did not exist on the date of the accident,” Baldwin’s attorneys said in an earlier court filing. Baldwin’s attorney declined to comment. Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the weapons supervisor on the set of the film “Rust,” were charged last month with felony involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died shortly who died shortly after being wounded during rehearsals at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe. Authorities said Bald...

The Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office announced it is dropping the gun enhancement charge — a crime that would have carried a five-year sentence if convicted — against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in October 2021. Baldwin still faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting, however, that crime would carry a lesser sentence of 18 months if convicted. The amended complaint was filed late Friday. The charge was also dropped against armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who faces the same involuntary manslaughter charge as Baldwin. “In order to avoid further litigious distractions by Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys , the District Attorney and the special prosecutor have removed the firearm enhancement to the involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the ‘Rust’ film set,” Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. “The prosecution’s priority is securing justice,...

President Joe Biden walks next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of St. Michaels Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv on Monday. Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images President Joe Biden made a surprise, albeit not totally unexpected, appearance in Ukraine on Monday, where he vowed continued U.S. support and announced $500 million in additional military aid for the embattled country. The visit to the war zone started a half day before Biden had been scheduled to begin a foreign trip in neighboring Poland and less than a week before the first anniversary of the beginning of Russia’s invasion. “One year later, Kyiv stands,” Biden declared after meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.” Zelenskyy thanked Biden for coming, calling it a “huge moment” for the country. Biden added in a statement that the aim of the trip was to “reaffirm our un...

Late last month, the Biden Administration announced that the U.S. would send thirty-one M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Meanwhile, in New York, a Ukrainian delegation, including a representative of the Territorial Defense Forces, had gathered to consider other types of aid. The goal, according to an ad for the event, was to promote “the psychological and spiritual resilience of Ukrainian people living in trauma, crisis, and war.” One possible avenue for healing? Psychedelics. The delegation met at a studio in Chelsea run by a Polish artist named Agnieszka Pilat. She paints with the aid of mobile robots on loan from Boston Dynamics; a yellow robot that resembled a dog pattered around the space as the audience arrived. One of the panelists, Dr. Laura Vandenberg, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, chatted with her friend Leah Drew, a healer and “mind-set mentor” based in Colorado, who specializes in trauma. “For Ukraine, it’s no longer about body armor,” Vandenberg said. “It’s...

After disappointing losses at the Australian Open and then the Dallas Open, Taylor Fritz finally put together a complete tournament, beating Miomir Kecmanovic 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 to claim the Delray Beach Open title.  The 25-year-old American came into the tournament ranked seventh in the world and was 7-3 to start 2023, but lost in the semi-finals of the Dallas Open to 97th-ranked Yibing Wu and lost in the Round of 64 of the Australian Open to 113th-ranked Alexei Popyrin.  Those two losses continued an up-and-down year for Fritz since last year’s Indian Wells championship. He produced good results overall but continuously dropped matches against much lower-ranked players, including losses at the Masters 1000 Montre Carlo to 46th-ranked Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, at the French Open, to 120th-ranked Bernabe Zapata Miralles, and at the U.S. Open in a first-round loss to 303rd-ranked qualifier Brandon Holt. In fact, one of his disappointing losses last year was in the third...