Police Blotter

Slashing attack
A Queens man, 22, told police he got into an argument with a stranger on the northwest corner of Sixth Ave. and Canal St. around 6:45 p.m. Thurs., April 8, when the stranger pulled a box cutter and slashed his leg. The victim ran into the nearby subway station but the suspect followed and slashed the victim under the right ear and around the back of the neck before fleeing, police said. An Emergency Medical Service team took the victim to St. Vincent’s in one of the last ambulance trips to the hospital, which stopped receiving trauma ambulances the following day.

Chinatown gang plea
Wen Ming Lin, a leader in a violent Chinatown gang known as the Banya Organization, after the Chinese village where many of the members hail from, pleaded guilty on April 16 to racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, assaults and gambling, according to Preet Bharara, U. S. Attorney for the Southern District in Manhattan. In addition to Wen, also known as Yi Mai, another Banya member, Zhau Lin, known as Big Flower, also pleaded guilty on April 16 to similar charges. Eleven other members of the gang, operating in Flushing, Queens in addition to Chinatown, previously pleaded guilty. Wen and Zhau were involved in extortions from the owners of two bus companies in Chinatown, according to court papers. Wen assaulted employees of both companies with hammers, the charges say. Another Banya member, Jian Liang Lin, known as Cousin, is awaiting trial.

Teen girl muggers
A 23-year-old woman walking on the southwest corner of William and Liberty Sts. on Tuesday evening, April 13 became aware that she was being followed. She stopped in front of Chase Plaza at 8:20 p.m., turned and faced three teenage girls who asked what time it was, police said. The suspects then pulled the victim to the pavement by her hair and kicked her when she screamed for help. The three muggers took the victim’s bag and fled, police said.

Second-story job
The resident of an apartment at 98 Thompson St. between Spring and Prince Sts. left for a Saturday night out at 8 p.m. April 10 and returned a 6:15 a.m. the next day to find the bedroom window at a fire escape open, the curtains on the floor and two laptop computers, with a total value of $2,200, missing, police said.

Gone from bag
A 17-year-old girl was walking on Canal St. between Mercer and Broadway around 3:20 p.m. Thurs., April 15 when she felt her backpack being jostled, police said. The victim thought it was her cell phone vibrating in the back pack and checked it only to discover the cell phone was gone.

Had to go
A patron of Via Dei Mille, 375 W. Broadway near Broome St. who was waiting on a queue at the men’s room during the early hours of Sat., April 10 became enraged when another patron cut in ahead of him. The suspect hit the line-jumper in the face with a bottle, broke his nose and fled, police said.

Them dry bones
A box of bones, some of them broken, that was found in the garbage on Columbia and E. Houston Sts. in the Baruch Houses complex on Wednesday afternoon, April 14, provoked a storm of rumors on the Lower East Side and brought police who cordoned off the site and sent the bones to the Medical Examiner’s office. The Medical Examiner determined on Fri., April 19 that the bones were not human, but did not say what kind of bones they were.

Information theft
Jazzrea McCrae was sentenced on April 14 in federal court to five months in prison and five months of home confinement for her role in conspiring to steal credit information from the city Office of Vital Records at 125 Worth St. In early 2009, according to her guilty plea, McCrae introduced an unnamed college aide working in Vital Records to an accomplice, Nathaniel Robinson. The accomplice told the aide how to steal credit card information from forms submitted by people requesting certified copies of their birth certificates, according to the charges. On several occasions, McCrae posed as an Office of Vital Records employee and phoned the victims for security codes on their credit cards, according to the plea. The stolen information was used to buy thousands of dollars of merchandize and services, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Robinson also pleaded guilty and was sentenced in January to 24 months in prison.

— Albert Amateau