Scoliosis Sufferer And Hanna-Barbera Aficionado Detained Following “Misunderstanding”

Not sure what Fred Flintstone has to do with it but whatever:

A troubled student wearing a Fred Flintstone mask and carrying a .50-caliber rifle was arrested at St. John’s University in Queens yesterday afternoon, prompting the authorities to lock down the campus for three hours while they searched for a possible second gunman, the police said.

The student, Omeash Hiraman, a 22-year-old freshman, was walking through the campus carrying a black plastic bag with the gun’s barrel sticking out of it when a campus security guard approached him and grabbed at the weapon, police said.

A struggle followed, and another student, Chris Benson, came by and helped subdue Mr. Hiraman. Mr. Benson and campus security guards restrained him until the police arrived.

The police later determined there was no second gunman. There were no injuries.

The police said Mr. Hiraman’s gun contained one round of black powder-charge ammunition. His lawyer, Anthony J. Colleluori, described the gun as “kind of like a Dick Cheney hunting rifle.” Charges are pending, the police said.

Mr. Colleluori said Mr. Hiraman had graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and enrolled at Cornell University, then transferred to St. John’s, a school he “happens to love.” He said his client was “very tired, he’s confused,” and surprised to hear that his arrest had caused an uproar on the campus.

“He’s not a person who would walk into Columbine and shoot people up,” he said.

Mr. Hiraman’s father, Pat, said his son had recently undergone surgery for scoliosis and may have been reacting to medications. “We believe this is a misunderstanding,” he said.

Then there’s the report in the Cornell Daily Sun (where the suspect was enrolled) quoting a former roommate and Stuyvesant grad who “totally saw it coming.”

Update: Who Was That Mask, Man?; result inconclusive.

But Do You Really Want To Marry A Guy Who Brings You Into Central Park At Night?

Yet I guess some guys have all the luck:

Seconds after a man popped the question to his sweetheart in Central Park, a gunman sprang from the bushes and robbed the couple but at leat they saved the ring.

Luke Jacunski, 30, had picked a romantic setting to propose to his girlfriend of six months — the gazebo off Strawberry Fields in Central Park.

So at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, he asked his intended, Mami Nagase, to accompany him on a stroll in the park.

He got down on his knee, and the 24-year-old artist had just accepted — when they were confronted by an armed man.

It clearly wasn’t Cupid — he was carrying a gun, not a bow and arrow.

“He shouted, ‘Give me your money and get down on the ground! Give me your jewelry!'” said Jacunski, a musician.

As the couple complied — the second trip to the ground that night for Jacunski — he managed to slip the silver engagement ring off of his fiancée’s finger.

The move caught the mugger’s eye, and he demanded, “What are you doing?”

Jacunski played dumb and replied, “What are you talking about?” as he slid the band under his arm.

The engagement crasher stuck his silver gun into Jacunski’s stomach and ordered him to roll over, but Jacunski still managed to hide the ring.

After warning the couple, “Don’t look at me! Don’t look at me!” the thug grabbed other jewelry off of Nagase’s fingers, a family-heirloom Rolex watch from her wrist, and $125 from Jacunski, which he had been planning to spend on dinner.

Axle-F’ed: Remind Me Again Why Semis Need Those Nifty Double Tires — Is It Only So There’s A Backup In Case One Spins Away And Slams Into Us?

This is like my worst nightmare:

A massive double-tire flew off a moving big rig Tuesday evening on the Lower East Side, hurtling onto the sidewalk and striking a jogger.

The rolling tire also damaged an FDNY call box and shattered the plate-glass window of a Dunkin’ Donuts.

. . .

The tire “was going fast. The truck was going fast, too,” said passerby David Ferron, who called police after witnessing the incident at First Avenue and Sixth Street. “He was speeding down the street.”

The truck, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer, had not returned to the scene nearly a half hour after the jogger was struck about 8 p.m., Ferron said.

Police at the scene said the truck driver stopped several blocks up First Avenue, when he realized two of his tires were missing.

Sometimes Your Mind Wanders And You Ponder Random Details About 9/11 . . .

Were JetBlue passengers watching 9/11 coverage on their personal television sets? Yes:

Jet Blue flight attendant Suhadee Henriquez was flying cross-country on the morning of September 11, 2001 as four aircrafts were hijacked by terrorists.

“I watched everything unfold,” Henriquez said. “I had to keep calm even though I didn’t know what was happening.”

Like the hijacked planes, the 727 that Henriquez was working on was well fueled and packed with passengers, and as her travelers began to piece together the details of the day from watching their personal TV sets, panic set in at 37,000 feet, she told aviation officials and Vaughn College students at an event on Wednesday, September 4.

“I turned around and looked at the TV and the second airplane hit,” Henriquez said.

Other items you may or may not have been wondering about include whether the lottery was delayed or postponed. Not New York’s pick three (the numbers that day were 0, 3, and 8 — look it up if you want). And the Wednesday/Saturday Powerball drawing chugged along as if nothing happened, as well.

I mean, even Broadway held out until Thursday the 13th!

Hide The Tallit, Stow That Crucifix Safely Inside Your Collar

“Perverse” is when gangs use rosary beads to identify other gang members:

The slaying of an immigrant dishwasher in a Queens subway station may be part of a larger pattern of gang attacks, police sources told Newsday.

Jose Nava, 19, was attacked in the early morning of Sept. 3, Labor Day, as he headed home to the Bronx from his job at a Greek restaurant in Astoria.

The Mexican immigrant, whom police initially identified as Jose Sierra, was set upon in the mezzanine of the Broadway station by up to six gang members who beat, stabbed and shot him before fleeing.

The suspects — who police sources said are members of Los Traviesos, Spanish for “The Troublemakers” — saw that Nava was wearing rosary beads and mistook the religious items for his membership in a gang, as some gangs wear such beads, the sources said.

Nava had no criminal record and was not in a gang, police said. He spent his days working 11-hour shifts, sending whatever money he could back to his family in Puebla, Mexico.