The Week in Rewind spotlights some of the editorial work of the Bronx Times for the week of June 19-22.
Bronx man living in transitional housing charged with attempted murder for shooting at NYPD officers
A Bronx man has been charged this week for allegedly shooting at NYPD officers near the intersection of 174th Street and Vyse Avenue in Crotona Park East during an incident last Friday.
Anthony Gomez, 33, was charged with possession of ammunition after a felony conviction and escape from custody, which carry maximum sentences of 15 years and five years in prison, respectively. The NYPD also told the Bronx Times that the agency booked him on five counts of attempted murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
According to the announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, Gomez allegedly fired a 9mm at NYPD officers on June 16 after fleeing from a federal halfway house where he was finishing out his sentence for armed robbery. Halfway houses provide a structured, supervised environment for inmates who are nearing release and will soon re-enter into society after incarceration.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the announcement that Gomez posed a real threat to the community’s safety.
“ … The defendant allegedly committed this shooting in the bright light of a summer Friday night while numerous New Yorkers, including young children and families, were on the sidewalk and had to duck and run for safe cover,” Williams said. “Anyone who brings gun violence to our community and targets law enforcement officers who work hard every day to keep New Yorkers safe will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Indicative of a national trend, Sisters Servants of Mary convent in Country Club to close
The Sisters Servants of Mary convent in the Country Club section of the Bronx, which has been serving the sick in the community for almost a century, is in the process of closing its doors due to a lack of vocation for the profession.
A congregation of the Catholic Sisters founded in Madrid, Spain in 1851, the Sisters Servants of Mary established a Province of the United States in 1913. The provincial government is based in the Kansas City, Kansas convent. The congregation currently has six convents in the U.S., including the one in the East Bronx, which fulfill the mission of caring for the sick and the dying in their own homes.
At the peak of its century in the Bronx, the convent housed anywhere from 25-30 sisters, who visited the homes of the sick in the community, usually staying overnight in order to care for them and resulting in a one-to-one system of sisters to families.
Sister Silvia Juarez first started at the Bronx convent in 2009, and has since left and returned three times. In an interview with the Bronx Times, Juarez said that during her time in the Bronx, she and her fellow sisters helped countless families, dealing with a minimum of three to four calls a day from families in need.
On June 9, Juarez said the Bronx convent had only nine sisters left, and just one week later that number was down to three. The sisters have been leaving for one of the other Sisters Servants of Mary convents across the country in order to live in a community where they can make the largest impact.
The Congregation of the Servants of Mary is currently in the process of selling the building that houses the Bronx convent, which is located on Country Club Road.
Fordham area churchgoers blindsided by mysterious, abrupt closure of 105-year-old church
The past few Sundays have been a break from tradition for the devoted congregation of the Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Dating back to April, churchgoers of the 105-year-old church on Walton Avenue told the Bronx Times that their deacon vanished without explanation. And without warning, on June 11, doors to the church, they say, were locked.
In lieu of hymns sung in exaltation inside the church, at a June 15 rally, members of the church sang a different tune: “Save our church!”
The answer to what’s going on with the church, according to the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — which operates roughly 190 congregations in the city — is that the church is headed for permanent closure.
“Throughout the years, we have provided financial and pastoral support to the Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church — but we have come to the inevitable conclusion that administrative hurdles and insurance concerns mandate that we cease funding for the church,” a spokesperson from the Metropolitan New York Synod’s office told the Bronx Times.
Officials from the synod said that they still are “fully prepared” to provide pastoral care, and said other congregations in the area are ready to welcome devoted churchgoers to its pews as the church transitions out of use. Adjoining property to the church, such as a pantry and flea market are still in operation, but the place of worship where pews and prayers have been held for a century is now closed.
‘Toking’ action: City Council unanimously approves stiff fines on landlords who rent to unlicensed cannabis shops
Amid a push to further crackdown on illicit cannabis sales, the City Council on Thursday unanimously passed a bill barring landlords from knowingly leasing commercial space to stores that sell unlicensed marijuana or tobacco products.
The legislation, sponsored by Council Member Lynn Schulman (D-Queens), overwhelmingly passed the council by a 47 to 0 vote margin, with one abstention. Under the bill, landlords found to be renting space to unlicensed marijuana and tobacco purveyors will first be served a warning and then hit with steep fines if they continue to rent to the illicit businesses.
The measure is a response to roughly 1,600 shops selling pot products without a license that have cropped up across the five boroughs since the substance was first legalized by the state legislature in 2021. The unlicensed stores have taken root as the state has been slow to launch a functioning legal market — so far there are only 15 legal dispensaries open statewide, five of which are in New York City.
The main concern is that the stores are selling unregulated products that could be dangerous to those who use them and their presence undermines the burgeoning legal market, which is supposed to prioritize those who went through the criminal justice system for decades old marijuana-related offenses. The “Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act,” the state legislation that legalized weed for adult-use, was designed to first direct dispensary licenses to those negatively impacted by the “War on Drugs.”
During a press conference preceding the bill’s approval, Schulman charged illegal weed shops are selling potentially dangerous products, marketed to minors, while robbing the state of much needed tax revenue.
For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
