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Man Punched Outside Quality Inn Homeless Shelter, Suspect Believed to be Shelter Resident

Quality Inn, homeless shelter

Quality Inn (QP)

Jan. 16, 2018  By Nathaly Pesantez

The NYPD is searching for a man who allegedly punched a 29-year-old outside a Queens Boulevard hotel currently housing the homeless, and who is purported to be a resident of the shelter.

The 108th Precinct tweeted a flyer this morning of a male suspect wanted in regards to an assault in front of the Quality Inn, the hotel located at 53-05 Queens Blvd. that has been providing shelter for homeless families since the summer of 2016.

Wanted Flyer released by 108th Precinct.

Police say the incident happened on Nov. 18 at around 6:50 p.m., when the 29-year-old victim and the suspect got into a verbal dispute outside the locale. The suspect then punched the victim in the face during the dispute, which caused pain and swelling to the victim’s face, an NYPD spokesperson said.

The suspect then fled on foot in an unknown direction, the spokesperson said.

The wanted flyer comes one day after the Daily News published a report detailing that the suspect is actually a resident of the Quality Inn homeless shelter, and that the NYPD closed their investigation into the incident in one day.

The 29-year-old victim told the newspaper that he is an employee at the auto shop next to the shelter, and saw the suspect come out of the hotel.

“A laundry van for the hotel was blocking my driveway and I was honking the horn,” the victim told the Daily News. “A guy comes out of the hotel with a friend and starts threatening me. He said, ‘I’m gonna knock you out, cracker!’ Then he punched me in the temple.”

The Daily News wrote that police closed the investigation into the incident even after they were provided with a photograph of the alleged assailant and a video of the assault. The initial police report also incorrectly said that the victim refused to give contact information, and that there were no witnesses to the event, despite the victim’s mother being an eyewitness.

Bill Kregler, an active community member and former police officer, was instrumental in helping open the case back up, going as far as taking the victim and his mother to the precinct and filing appeals to obtain police reports on the incident. “This gentleman came to me and said its not being handled properly,” Kregler told the Sunnyside Post.

Kregler added that the 29-year-old’s injuries after the incident warranted a follow up by detectives. “He was never interviewed by detectives,” Kreglar said. “That’s against procedures.”

While the 108th Precinct has since reopened the case on the November incident, and said the case was accidentally closed due to an administrative error, Kregler believes that the precinct acted as “a sacrificial lamb” for the mayor, who has received much criticism for his administration’s trend of temporarily housing the homeless in city hotels with short community notice.

“Someone is falling on the sword for the mayor,” Kregler said. “This is coming from City Hall—to keep things quiet.”

He added: “The 108th Precinct is doing their very best through unwritten policies to keep everything quiet at these places. But their hands are tied.”

Anyone with information regarding the suspect is asked to contact Detective Michael Grimm at 718-784-5441 or Detective Borough Queens North at 718-520-9200.

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32 Comments

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Homeless Man

I have been transferred to that shelter (I’m homeless, yes), hope I can use this comment section to avoid the transfer. It can be a fancy neighborhood maybe, but reading these comments tells a lot about the residents of the area. Clean clothes; perverse mind.

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Anonymous

this hotel is only suppose to be for mothers and children — how are men being housed there also?

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Sunnyguy

What’s scary is is that as more and more new hotels get built, they will eventually become homeless shelters as the hotels novelty wears off. LIC/Sunnyside: NYC’s Homeless Dumping Ground. Coming 2023.

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Deetz

Ah, yes. When I’m called a “cracker”, I get upset because it brings me back to the days of owning people and land. It hurts me deeply! Totally the same as calling black people the N word.
/sarcasm

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David

How old are you that you can be brought back to the days of owning skaves? For done reason the people who are brought back to this period by the mention of the “N” word are only transported there when the word is used by a white person. Fake outrage.

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Kelly M

The guy who was assaulted and called cracker will always be brought back to the point in time when he was brutally assaulted when he is called cracker. Unlike victims of the “N” word he was actually present in the time and place he’ll be transport red to.

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LIC Neighbor

The sign of things to come. Our neighborhood already going through significant changes, the weather has kept them indoors at the shelters (Best Western and Others in the Neighborhood) but in the Spring and Summer it will get progressively worse. Our Mayor DiBlasio already breaking the bank, the city is in the Red, all the progress made by Mayor Bloomberg being fiscally responsible is out the window. We have a dirtier, more disorganized city than ever before. The Mayors Progressive agenda will bankrupt NY city, our property values will diminish, our property taxes will increase and our quality of life is in the toilet – just ride the 7 or E trains in the morning, super packed unwashed/smelly homeless taking up entire subway cars while we get up in the morning to go to work and put food on the table for our families and cover our bills. Robberies, theft and break-ins are up in the neighborhood. Be vigilant, watch your backs and wait for the downturn in the economy then you will see a return to the crime ridden NYC of the 70’s and the 80’s during the crack epidemic.

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Fran

There’s ALWAYS some sort of problem here, either outside the building or inside! I can’t even walk down my block anymore without fear! I’ve lived on this block for 40yrs and never witnessed any wrongdoings until they opened this shelter, now it’s an everyday occurrence.

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Paul

On November 26, 2017 at 6:40a.m. a car pulled in front of my neighbors house on 53rd street. The guy got out and started smoking a joint in front of my neighbors house. When I told never to smoke pot in front of my neighbors house again. He said, I’ll knock you out cracker!! His license plate is HUX-1338. I hope this helps with the ongoing investigation

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Me

Maybe it’s the guy they found dead in the park.
Stuffing homeless people in hotels turned shelters is not a solution.

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Billy

I’m sick of the lies from De Blasio and Homeless Services Commissioner Steven Banks, especially the one about people from the zip codes from Maspeth, Woodside and Sunnyside accounting for hundreds of people in the shelter system. This is an obvious lye. Close this place and put it in one of the zip-codes creating these antisocial violent criminals. We need to protest at the home of the owner of this hornets nest just like we did back in the 80’s. The homeowners on the block have made dozens of complaints about the residents of this place from vandalism, pot smoking and constant screaming matches.

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BigJim

If it was the other way around jvb would be organizing protests and making sure it would be classed as a hate crime.

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Bill

Third Term Councilmember and Majority Council Speaker Jimmy Van Bramer is fully supporting the Quality Inn Homeless Hotel as per Sunnyside Post article dated August 23, 2016:
“Van Bramer said he has no plans to protest outside the Quality Inn. “There are young mothers and children who are going through tough times. We do have to show empathy.”
What Jimmy would like us to believe is that there are no men in the homeless hotel. There are reported 35 men residing there.

Community Board #2 is also in support of the Quality Inn saying that it is a Hotel and should not be labelled a “homeless shelter” because they have several rooms that they rent out to guests.

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Anonymous

to be honest the quality inn was reported as being a homeless shelter way back when on Yelp and to the corporation so it is a full homeless shelter — and no there should not be any men living in there at all

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David

I heard there were suppose to be no men at this shelter as well. That was an issue when the baby died at this shelter last year. This place needs to be shut down.

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Anonymous

well people should be starting a rally on closing this place down – but wait Mr. JVB does not want this and these are his exact words —

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Paul Salow

Thanks for standing up for the community and having the patience to be so thorough in checking up on this incident

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BKS40

Not only are the police covering for the mayor’s homeless policy, there is the widespread practice of the police discouraging the reporting of crime. Despite what Chief Dermot Shea, a former Sunnyside resident,says, it has become common practice for the police to manipulate the Comstat statisics by not taking a report or downplaying the charges. Additionally, with the significant population growth within the 108th’s borders, they are severely understaffed.

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Sunnysider

You have obviously have not had to file a police report in this city. “The widespread practice of the police discouraging the reporting of crime ” and plain just not wanting to take a report has been the practice at least since the 70’s. I know I had to file reports for my business, cars and couple of other incidents. It has always been like pulling teeth. It’s nothing new.

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