🚔 NYPD On Pace For 4K-Cop Mass Exit + Queens Man Free After 34 Years

Good morning, Queens! 🥳

• 🚨 So far this year, 3,054 officers have filed to retire or resign from the NYPD. If this pace continues in the fourth quarter, the department stands to lose a record-breaking 4,000 officers in one year.
• 🆓 Queens native Robert Webster was released from prison this week after serving 34 years for an arson he says he did not commit. Webster was just 17-years-old when he was given a 50-year life sentence.
• 🏛 Murder charges were dropped against a teenage suspect in the fatal Oct. 14 shooting of a 15-year-old boy on the Queens subway.

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☔️ A little rain, mainly early. High: 63 Low: 60.

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Here are the top stories in Queens today:

1. NYPD pension fund figures show 3,054 officers have filed to retire or resign from the department so far this year. If this pace continues in the fourth quarter, the NYPD stands to lose more than 4,000 officers this year — the most since the post-9/11 exodus, which saw 3,846 officers leave the force in 2002. Union leaders warn the crippling attrition has created a "staffing emergency." "I have no regrets about leaving," a 30-year-old former Queens cop told The Post. "From what I hear from the many officers I still speak to, the NYPD has actually somehow become worse in just the few months I've been gone. I didn't even know that was possible. The job has become unsustainable for a lot of people — financially, mentally, everything about it."

New York Post

2. After serving 34 years of a 50 year life sentence for an arson he says he did not commit, Queens native Robert Webster was released from prison on Thursday, Oct. 20 — a little more than a week before his 52nd birthday. Webster has been incarcerated for most of his life, having been arrested in 1987 when he was just 17-years-old. The case against Webster involved a firebombing via Molotov cocktails of a South Jamaica home belonging to a man named Arjune, who initially told police that he had not seen the perpetrators. The day after the attack, Webster was picked up off the street by two NYPD officers, who lied to him, saying they needed his help in identifying a rape suspect. Though Webster had witnessed no rape, he went with the officers, who brought him to Arjune's house, where Webster was identified as one of the suspects. Beyond this identification by Arjune — who made a number of other identifications he later recanted — there was no other evidence linking Webster to the arson. During his time in prison, Webster decided to stay busy — he became the first person in his family to earn a college degree, he worked as a teacher's assistant, and served as the vice president of a nonprofit organization. Though the Queens D.A.'s office submitted a motion in support of his release, they said their stance on Webster's innocence had not changed.

Queens Daily Eagle

3. A murder charge initially brought by police and prosecutors has been dropped against an 18-year-old suspect in the fatal Oct. 14 shooting of Jayjon Burnett, 15, on the Queens subway. A grand jury Friday did not indict the teenage suspect, Keyondre Russell, on the murder charge. Russell will instead face weapon possession, evidence tampering, and menacing charges, the Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz's office confirmed Sunday. Russell's defense attorney, the Legal Aid Society's Peter St. George Davis, has maintained that the teen did not fire the fatal shot, and that the bullet instead passed through Russell's upper left leg before it hit Jayjon in the chest. Davis said that cellphone video footage of the shooting shows a young man, not Russell, stretched out his hand before the fatal shot.

New York Daily News ; New York Post

4. The festival of Diwali, India's biggest and most important holiday, is almost here — a holiday that celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of good over evil. Outside of India, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and others across globe celebrate Diwali, which commemorates something different for each belief system. According to Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, approximately 200,000 New Yorkers observe the holiday, which is customarily celebrated for five days. In addition to festivities at houses of worship across the city, events celebrating Diwali are planned across the five boroughs. Click the link to learn more!

Spectrum News NY1

5. Two Queens men were convicted of robbery and weapons charges after stealing more than $284,000 in cash from the Aqueduct Racetrack in March 2020. The robbery took place around 10 p.m. following the Gotham Day stakes races as racetrack employees were transporting more than $284,000 in cash earnings to a vault. The robbers confronted the employees at gunpoint, took their cellphones and the cash, and then forced them into a closet. "Their armed robbery of Aqueduct Racetrack played out like a Hollywood movie heist, but with a bad ending for the defendants who now face steep prison sentences," stated United States Attorney Peace. "Today's verdict proves once again that it is a losing bet to commit a violent crime and think that you will outrun the law."

New York Post ; Department of Justice

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🗞 Hungry for more news? 🍴Snack on these headlines:

• NYC Increases Police in Subways to Combat Crime (The New York Times)
• Priyanka Chopra on Diwali being a school holiday in New York from 2023: 'My teenage self living in Queens is crying…' (Hindustan Times)
• Words and Actions: Queens Museum Shows About Seeking Racial Justice (The New York Times)
• `Where the goodies are great': Sweets lovers welcome Diwali (The Buffalo News)

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🗓 To Do Today in Queens:

• Compost Build Community Volunteer Days 2022 (9:30 a.m.)
• Free Mammogram Screening: Breast Cancer Awareness Month (10 a.m.)
• The Heavy Weight of Being: A Photographic and Mixed Media Exhibit (11 a.m.)
• All Ages Open Access: Media Lab (12 p.m.)
• Chair Fitness (2 p.m.)
• Vic Hanson Afterschool Program (3 p.m.)
• Tonight at Music Box: Latin Party (6 p.m.)
• Dance Bachata with Us (7 p.m.)

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🗣 Queens Chatter:

• 🐶 Fun was had at yesterday's dog parade and costume contest: "Happy Howl-oween from the good boys and girls of the Forest Park Barking Lot! Thanks for having my family and I at today's inaugural dog parade and costume contest. As fun as a game of fetch." (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards via Facebook)
• 🪨 In praise of caves: ""Let 'cave' be a metaphor: for our instinctive dust-to-dust returns to earth, for our inviolable connection to it, and let all these snakes act as our surrogates and guides." – Dakin Hart, Senior Curator. Now on view: 'In Praise of Caves: Organic Architecture Projects from Mexico by Carlos Lazo, Mathias Goeritz, Juan O'Gorman, and Javier Senosiain' (through February 26, 2023). Under the broad rubric of organic architecture, selected projects and site-specific installations by these four artist-architects reflect the benefits of cave dwellings and the innate joy of cohabitating with nature. Their works reveal an alternative vision for approaching the relationship between human-built and natural environments that emerged in Mexico in the middle of the twentieth century..." (The Noguchi Museum via Facebook)
• 🎃 Halloweekend draws ever closer: "Halloween Weekend at #NYSCI will be all day Friday, October 28 - Sunday, October 30 (10-5 each day, including Community Hours on Friday from 2-5pm). Come to NYSCI to Trick or Treat around the museum + for more fun Halloween-themed activities. Tickets: https://nysci.co/3eUVX8G" (The New York Hall of Science via Twitter)
• 🇰🇷 Wonderful 2022 Korean Festival yesterday: "So happy to be out celebrating with our Korean neighbors today. Korean culture has become a global phenomenon, and New York City has benefited tremendously. Thanks to @TheKAAGNY for hosting such a successful festival!" (Comptroller Brad Lander via Twitter)

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Alrighty, you're all caught up for today. I'll catch up with you bright and early tomorrow morning with another update!

— Emma Radu Fighera

About me: Emma Radu Fighera is a reporter born and raised in Queens, New York. She studied Literature and Studio Art at Hamilton College, where she helped run the only daily publication on campus, The Daily Bull newsletter. This past spring she earned her M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Queens Daily? Contact me at queens@patch.com