Talk Bronx New York

Maxi Phalone (right) reacts after her sister was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince on Monday, January 18. Bronx residents have responded to Haiti’s earthquake with donations but more help is needed. Photo by Julie Jacobson

In two decades as a clergyman, Rev. Nathanael Saint-Pierre has never worked so many hours, consoled so many congregants, seen so many tears. Saint-Pierre heads the Haitian Congregation of the Good Samaritan Episcopal Church on E. 219th Street in the Bronx and has led the borough’s response to the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Tuesday, January 12.

“We Haitians in New York City are sad and frustrated,” he said. “I have never had to face such hard issues.”

Saint-Pierre was fortunate not to lose any family members in the disaster but many of his congregants did. More have struggled to contact family members and friends in hastily constructed shelters amid the ruble. Good Samaritan has gathered food and donations for those trapped on the impoverished Caribbean island and Haitians trapped here in New York City as well.

“One of my [congregant’s] families lost six people,” Saint-Pierre said. “One man who lost his sister was unable to find a funeral home in Port-au-Prince and there are no commercial flights to Haiti. He had to have someone there transfer the body to the Dominican Republic [to be cremated]. When commercial flights start again he’ll get the ashes. He needs to grieve but to grieve is not easy.”

The daughter of one congregant brought her daughter to the United States for Christmas. Her home in Haiti has been destroyed and she has no way to return but no job or legal status here. Saint-Pierre hopes to raise money and help the woman gain legal status.

“Unfortunately, we cannot only focus on those in Haiti,” Saint-Pierre said. “There are also crises here.”

Although the Bronx boasts hundreds of thousands of Caribbean immigrants, many from the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti, the borough is home to only 4,196 people of Haitian heritage and 2,455 Haitian immigrants, census records reveal. In comparison, the Bronx is home to some 143,000 Dominicans and nearly 49,000 Jamaicans. Read more..

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Police officers were involved in two shootings Friday, one of a 15-year-old boy the police said was brandishing a fake gun, the other of a man they said was trying to steal an officer’s car.

In the first episode, about 5 p.m., a police officer assigned to a narcotics unit watched an argument between two groups of men near Burke Avenue and Holland Street in the Olinville section of the Bronx. A 15-year-old boy with one group waved what appeared to be a gun, but ran away when he was taunted by men in the other group, the police said.

The officer, whom the police did not identify, joined by another officer, chased the boy and fired one shot, striking the boy in the left cheek, the police said. An imitation gun was recovered at the scene. The boy was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition, and was charged with menacing and possessing an imitation pistol.

In the second shooting, about 6:25 in East New York, Brooklyn, an off-duty officer sitting in a parked car was ordered out of the car at gunpoint by Norman Harrison, 25, the police said. The officer, whom the police refused to identify except to say that he had been in the department for less than three years, fired one shot, hitting Mr. Harrison in the right shoulder.

Mr. Harrison fled, and hid out in an apartment for more than an hour before surrendering. He was charged with robbery, the police said. Read more..

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