Community Corner

🏫 School Intruder Enters Via Unlocked Doors + Battery Fire Kills Girl

The quickest way to get caught up on the most important things happening today in Queens.

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Good morning, Queens! ☀️

Mondays in the fall are my favorite. With that in mind, here are today's headlines:

  • 📚 An "agitated and combative" man was able to run right into a Corona elementary school because its front doors were unlocked.
  • 🔋 A charging lithium ion battery exploded and caused a fire which killed an eight-year-old girl.
  • 🛻 A $58 million class-action lawsuit alleges that a Queens towing company has been running a "rackateering enterprise" with the help of the NYPD.


😶‍🌫️ Humid; a p.m. shower 🚿 or two 🚿🚿 High: 86 Low: 70.

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I have a limited number of sponsorships available to introduce our Queens Daily readers to local businesses they need to know about. If that's you, then I invite you to learn more and secure your spot now.

Here are the top stories in Queens today:

1. A unarmed intruder who burst into an elementary school in Corona on Thursday was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by the school's safety agent and jui jitsu-trained principal. The "agitated and combative" man barged into PS 28, the Pre-K to 3 Thomas Emanuel Early Childhood Center, through the unlocked front door about an hour before dismissal. "He came through the front door and just ran," said a source with knowledge of the incident. "The school safety agent tried to stop him. He fought with her." As the aide wrestled with the suspect, Principal Robert Quintana, who practices the martial art jiu jitsu, joined in, and the pair succeeded in handcuffing the intruder. Staffers made three 911 cals, but cops from the 110th Precinct reportedly took 19 minutes to arrive.

New York Post


2. An eight-year-old girl died of smoke inhalation on Saturday after a charging lithium ion battery from an e-bike sparked a serious house fire. Two other people were treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The fast-moving fire broke out in a third-floor apartment in College Point at 7:30 a.m., and more than 60 firefighters were called in to extinguish the blaze, which took 45 minutes to put out. So far this year, the FDNY has a blamed over 130 structural fires on batteries being recharged for use in e-bikes and other mobility devices. John M. Esposito, FDNY Chief of Fire Operations, suggested that people refrain from charging the batteries near their front door, so as not to trap themself inside the house in the event of a fire.

CBS New York News ; New York Daily News


3. A new class-action lawsuit filed on Saturday alleges that city officials allowed a Queens towing company to run an illegal "racketeering enterprise" that monopolized services on many highways, and ripped off thousands of drivers. The $58 million suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court seeks damages from the NYPD, the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and Runway Towing Corp. It claims that Runaway has earned more than $200 million since 2010 off its NYPD contract, which the city has extended repeatedly since 2013 without competitive bidding, and, in the process, ignoring many complaints about the company's alleged lawbreaking.

New York Post


4. For decades, the portion of sand in front of a boarded up, beach-front building on the Rockaway Penninsula in Queens has been known as "The People's Beach" — a summer haven for the L.G.B.T.Q. community. Now that the building is set to be demolished, Yael Malka, a photographer who identifies as queer, and who has visited the beach for nearly a decade, is capturing the "last summer" at the People's Beach. "The building was a physical barrier, it was safety, it was privacy," said Malka. The removal of the building, which was once a tuberculosis hospital, and then a nursing home, has sparked concerns among the L.G.B.T.Q. community that the spirit of the beach may be forever altered.

The New York Times


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

🗓 To Do Today in Queens:

  • Compost Build Volunteer Days: Queens Botanical Garden (9:30 a.m.)
  • Senior Cardio Sculpt (10:30 a.m.)
  • The Heavy Weight of Being exhibit at the King Manor Museum (11 a.m.)
  • Climate Week NYC: Shoreline Ecosystem Resilience (2 p.m.)
  • Morning of the Earth: Rockaway Film Festival 2022 (6 p.m.)
  • Kids Karate (6 p.m.)
  • Yoga on the Waterfront (7 p.m.)
  • Pet Day! Inviting All Pet Owners! (7:30 p.m.)

🗣 Queens Chatter:

  • 🇵🇷 Thinking of Puerto Rico: "Thinking of all our neighbors to the south in Puerto Rico today — and our borough's Puerto Rican community — as the island deals with yet another potentially devastating hurricane. Queens stands with PR, forever and always. #Fiona #PuertoRico" (Queens Borough President Donovan Richards via Twitter)
  • Did someone say apple cider donut?:"They're HERE! Sweeten up the weekend with apple cider donuts, now available on the farm Sats & Suns thru Oct. They are the perfect accompaniment for a trip through the #AmazingMaizeMaze! Plan your farm adventure & get tickets at https://bit.ly/35d7Rpb" (Queens County Farm Museum via Twitter)
  • Banned books week at the Queens Public Library : "It's Banned Books Week! Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us. Get inspired by our list of the 100 Most Popular #BannedBooks in circulation at QPL during the past decade. Borrow them online and from your local library, including copies in several international languages! https://queenslibrary.org/about-us/news-media/blog/2666... #BannedBooksWeek" (Queens Public Library via Facebook)
  • Upcoming at MoMA PS1: "NEXT WEEK we can't wait for you to meet three exciting artists having their first major solo exhibitions in New York. Opening Thursday, Jumana Manna, Frieda Toranzo Jaeger, and Umar Rashid present new works that interrogate the stories we tell about the past and the propositions we envision for the future.
    Frieda Toranzo Jaeger's hinged paintings hijack the technology of catholic altarpieces and hybrid cars, repurposing icons of masculinity to imagine a future of queer freedom. Umar Rashid collides history and fantasy to create epic narrative paintings that examine the evolution of colonial power, and how it might be undone. Jumana Manna works across documentary and sculpture to explore cultural and national identities embedded in land, and strategies of resistance set against legacies of colonialism and climate change. All three exhibitions open September 22nd, so clear your equinox and plan your visit at mo.ma/ps1tickets. Images: 1. Frieda Toranzo Jaeger. "Hope The Air Conditioning Is On While Facing Global Warming (part 1)." 2017. 2. Umar Rashid. "The gods are indifferent but occasionally rapture the souls of humanity to hold for later judgment. Naval siege of the Fort Zeelandia expansion project by indigenous, and Frenglish raiders. The primary target escapes in a Ferrari whilst condemning everyone else to bombardment. Or, mooning in a canoe while Black and White Jesus look on in awe and terror." 2022. 3. Jumana Manna. Installation view of "Break, Take, Erase, Tally" Noel Woodford" (MoMA PS1 via Facebook)

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You're all caught up for today! I'll see you back in your inbox tomorrow morning with your next update.

— Emma Radu Fighera

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