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Homeless Man Found Dead at Noonan Playground Monday Morning

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Jan. 15, 2018 By Christian Murray

A homeless man was found dead at L/CPL Thomas P Noonan Jr. Playground early Monday morning.

The police arrived at the park, located on Greenpoint Avenue between 42nd and 43rd streets, at about 7:00 a.m. and discovered him dead, according to city sources. The cause of death was alcohol poisoning. His identity has yet to be released.

Sunday was particularly cold. Temperatures dropped to a low of 15 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The wind-chill fell to a low of minus 5 degrees.

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44 Comments

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Crystal Wolfe

No one should die like that on the streets. Not a pedophile. Not an alcoholic. Not the mentally ill. Nor the homeless families and CHILDREN in NYC that make up 70% of the homeless population. This is an UNACCEPTABLE human indignity. Blame is immature. Arguing is wasting time. We need to solve homelessness. It is NOT OKAY. And until people as a whole, as a society, CARE, more and more people will suffer unjustly. We have to fight back, FOR the greater good. I know I am.

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Ref

I hope the homeless population drives you all out of Sunnyside so I can finally get some affordable rent.

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Suncoast

You will never get an affordable rent unless and until Sunnyside landlords stop raising rent illegally and until the elimination of preferential rents. This will never happen because our state senator Michael Gianaris receives over $100,000 in campaign contributions from landlords and real estate developers.

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Anonymous

I would like to see more efforts from the social workers like the traffic cops in Sunnyside.
It wouldn’t take much effort to getting them the help they need. Most of them could be Veterans, milk carton children, and others could be far from home and simply need a bus or plane ticket to get home. We don’t know the circumstance of their situation and I think that JVB should step up his game and deploy social workers in the field.

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sorry for some truth you liberals

how can you blame a politician for the death of a guy who spends every waking second of his day drunk off his – – – ? You’re responsible for your own life and what you make of it.

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Luna

What needs to happen is homeless shelters should be made safe.

It is known fact that homeless shelters are dangerous and people that go there either get robbed of what few possessions they have and/or attacked or threatened. To the point that many homeless would rather attempt to sleep in the cold then go to a shelter where its warm.

During one year bad freezing weather and heavy snow fall was announced and cops were ordered to bring any homeless they found to shelters. To avoid this the homeless in the city hid in Central Park, many of them were found frozen to death. They would rather risk freezing and dying then go to a shelter.

Make the shelters safer and work to get these homeless back on their feet when they enter a homeless shelter and we’ll see less of this.

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David

It has more to do with mental illness.. America uses it’s prisons to treat and handle the mentally ill. Prison Wardens through out the country have petitioned congress for more help. Three quarters of the inmates in the system are either on anti depressants or anti psychotic medication and a huge percentage have frontal lobe brain damage from abuse and assaults. Hospitals will only stay involved as long as the mentally ill patients health insurance covers them, which isn’t long enough to effectively treat these people.

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Balls

Van no Brainmer as received 100s of complaints about the homeless drunks in the park but has yet to do anything

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Ann

I have lived near this park since 1990. My children and now my grandchildren have played there. There have always been numerous homeless people in that park. Many are often drunk while kids are playing there which has always been a concern. However, this poor man died and deserves some respect. It doesn’t matter how he died or if he had been drinking. He is someone’s son, maybe a father or brother or perhaps a veteran. He died a miserable death and that should concern us all. When will someone step up and take care of the homeless situation?

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A.Bundy

Depends who will pay for it. Since nobody else will, well…there you go. And why would you think he died a miserable death? he died dead drunk. thats far FAR better than dying slowly in a hospital with some disease like cancer or diabetes.

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AJ

So what if he was drinking?! There are drunks in the majority of NYC parks. It just comes with the territory. Skillman park is not much better & that’s almost across the street from JVB, so let’s not make it about him. At least it’s not the early 90’s when people did a needle sweep before allowing their kids to enter playgrounds.
And this poor guy probably did die because he froze to death – because if he was drinking (& it is very likely that he was), the alcohol dilated the peripheral blood vessels, causing his core temps to drop even faster.
There was another homeless man that froze to death in Astoria, under the Hells Gate Bridge, the same night as the Noonan incident. May they both rest in peace.

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Carbie Barbie

Where are those who commenters who constantly decry the homeless shelters?

I doubt it actually was alcohol poisoning. They probably changed the cause of death to avoid the scandal of reporting a man freezing to death in this, the richest country in the history of the world.

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David

“Decry the homeless shelters”? Tell that to Edward Karakash. A “homeless” man called him a “cracker” and slugged him outside of the Queens Blvd. car repair shop where he works, on Dec. 18.
The auto shop near 54th St. is adjacent to a Quality Inn which the city has converted into a homeless shelter. According to the New York Daily News.

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Anonymous

the Quality Inn has been a homeless shelter since May of 2016 which Mr. JVB knew all about it and tried to deny that he did — ever since this has become a homeless shelter there has nothing but trouble there – it is destroying the neighborhood cops are there all of the time where is Mr. JVB on this issue —

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Anonymous

Jimmy is too busy figuring out the bike lanes and removing parking spaces from Skillman and 43rd Ave. He can’t do everything. May the soul of the deceased rest in peace.

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SuperWittySmitty

Without homeless shelters in neighborhoods throughout NYC, there would be more homeless people on the streets and living on benches in our parks.

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Kelly M

The shelters don’t need to be “throughout” the city. Set them up on Rikers or Wards Island. Or better yet put them in the zip codes the homeless come from (zip code of origin) and expose the De Blasio lye about hundreds of homeless coming from here.

Carbie Barbie

That guy should be arrested and probably needs treatment for the underlying conditions that have lead him to homelessness, no doubt.

But that has nothing to do with the fact that this man died, frozen, in a park on one of the coldest nights of the year.

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George

The blame is on Van Brammer for ignoring our complaints about the homeless drunks in that park but since it’s not in his precious historical area of Sunnyside he ignored it.

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David

George- You’re absurd. More blame lies with you and people like you who have allowed politics to be turned into an us and them, banner waving hat wearing high school pep rally instead of a discourse on policy and ideas. Good work George, this one is on you and yours.

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George

Dear liberal Kool-Aid drinking David: What the deranged progressive politicians don’t take care of nature will. If you have any mirrors you can see true absurdity at it’s best. I will never feel the blame for it because i did not import him here and then leave him in the street the democrats did.

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Sunnysider

George- David is absolutely right about you. Put on your red hat and chant make America Great again, that will bring about effective change and put in place effective policy. The article or police never gave the race or ethnicity of the person found in the park are you sure he’s been “imported”?There are white guys down in that park too. You’re still incapable of any discourse on policies or ideas. David pegged you right. Hahaha

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BigJim

You and your progressive politicans are responsible for this death,so stop blaming others.

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George

I know the man who died sunnysider. There goes your uninformed rant out the window. I live here and i’m in the park everyday.

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Sean

Big Jim- America needs some progressive politicians so we could show some of the same statistics as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia. Conservatives have turned all of America into the third world low wage and under educated impoverished south thanks to people like you.

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Gondola

My comment was altered. It said that George is a typical retired NYPD racist.

Kelly Mc

George – there was no doubting you lived in the park and that you’re there everyday. There was no need for your announcement. We already knew.

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David

George- I’m far from a liberal as you can see by my opinions outlined in my posts. Then again, you’ve demonstrated, repeatedly, a deficiency in your reading comprehension and reading ability and aren’t able to see it. I didn’t vote De Blasio or Trump. You’re still waving banners and wearing your hat at the high school pep rally. Because of people like you America has been allowed to fall further and further behind the countries who make up western society that’s a fact.You obviously can’t deduce a simple argument or discuss an issue without attaching a Fox News tag or label to it to direct you to your position, a position that you should have arrived at through a thought process or a discussion, both of which you’re obviously incapable of. “Deranged progressive politicians”? You do know the most progressive nations in the world (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia) have the highest standard of living, longest life expectancy and highest wages? You’re using it as an insult. hahaha Once again, Good work George, this one is on you and yours.

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edward

I agree completely that the blame lies mostly on Van Brammer, this politician has his nose so far up his own arse he ignores the public only cares about his historical sunnyside landmark.

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Lizzie

Rest in Peace. What does Sunnyside do to help the homeless population? Are there places to donate food or clothing? Where is the nearest shelter?

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Anonymous

Best Western on 39th St and Hunters Point near Greenpoint Ave is the nearest shelter. You can also drop off food and clothing at the local churches. I do sometime see homeless people try to seek refuge and sanctuary at the churches such as Jehovah’s witnesses and Queen of Angels and other nearby churches.

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