THE BRONX
* An 18-year-old man was shot and killed in a Bronx housing project early yesterday after he and his friends were apparently playing with a gun, sources said.
Nathaniel Vallejo of Burke Avenue was shot in the head inside an apartment in the Eastchester Houses, at 3055 Bouck Ave., in the Morris Park section, police said. A 9 mm handgun was found.
Sources said that Vallejo was shot with a 9 mm semiautomatic. A resident of the apartment, Louis Lopez, 17, fled along with at least one other youth who was believed to have witnessed Vallejo’s death.
MANHATTAN
* A police sergeant was seriously hurt in Gramercy Park yesterday when he was struck by a fleeing car.
The driver and his passenger were both arrested on assault charges.
At 2:40 a.m., cops tried to pull over a vehicle at 21st Street and Fifth Avenue for a traffic infraction, sources said, but the driver fled.
Cops followed the car to 17th Street and Second Avenue, where it hit the sergeant. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition.
Two other cops responding to the chase suffered minor injuries when their car crashed at East 13th Street and Third Avenue. Both were taken to Beth Israel Hospital.
The chased car then headed uptown on Third, but at 20th Street hit a fire hydrant and became disabled. The two men fled, but were caught.
The suspects – Darren Bishop, 21, and Laif Bass, 20, both of Newark – were charged with assault. (s, lcf)
* Three men were arrested for an assault on another man early yesterday in lower Manhattan that left the victim in critical condition, police said.
The incident unfolded shortly after 3 a.m. when a man in his 20s got into a dispute with several other men at Nassau Street and Fulton Street for reasons that remain unclear, sources said.
The argument led to bloodshed when the group of men stabbed the victim and began beating him with a blunt object, the sources added. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, and cops later arrested three men for assault and weapons possession.
Two suspects – Patrick Hur, 22, of Monroe Street, and Lawrence Mach, 19, of Clinton Street – live in Chinatown. A third, Steven Wong, 23, resides in Vinyard Haven, Mass.
BROOKLYN
* Detectives were probing an anti-gay bias attack on a subway rider in Bedford-Stuyvesant, cops said yesterday.
The 33-year-old victim had gotten off a G train at Flushing Avenue at 7:40 p.m. Friday when he was approached by two men who began making anti-gay statements before a third struck him in the head with a chain, police said.
The suspects fled and the victim was taken to Brooklyn Hospital in stable condition.
* Cops have busted a 21-year-old Brooklyn man linked to a December robbery in which his cohort was shot dead by an intended victim.
Nester Ruiz, 21, of Marlborough Road, was arrested in connection with a Dec. 28 robbery in Flatbush, police said.
At 6:45 p.m. on the day of the robbery, Ruiz and his pal, Fisher Canton, 29, were alleged to have approached Sheldon Barrow, 34, and Beverly Seales, 35, with guns drawn and demanded money.
A struggle erupted during which Barrow pulled out a .49-caliber pistol and shot Canton, of Stevens Court, Brooklyn, in the face. He was declared dead at the scene.
When cops arrived, Barrow and Seales were arrested for marijuana possession, but neither were charged in connection with the shooting of Canton, who was found with a pellet gun near his body.
Ruiz allegedly fled after Canton was shot, but was arrested Friday and charged with robbery, police said.
QUEENS
* A 36-year-old man was found dead at a Woodhaven park yesterday afternoon.
The body of Kenny Chun, who is from Woodhaven, was discovered around 1:30 a.m. inside Forest Park, near 102nd Street and Park Lane South, police said.
It was unclear how long Chun had been there or how he died. (lcf)
* Two hold-up men were arrested after they had robbed as many as 20 people in an industrial building in Long Island City early yesterday, cops said.
When cops heard a gunshot being fired from inside a business at 10-01 40th Avenue at about 2:30 a.m., they arrested Timothy Forman, 28, fled the location while wearing a ski mask, police said.
Moments later, his alleged accomplice, Herbert Callahan, 32, was taken into custody. He was in possession of a 9-mm pistol and a bag containing cash, jewelry, wallets and cell phones.
The officers then found 16 to 20 victims who reported they had just been robbed by the duo.
One of the victims, John Holmes, 41, of Astoria Boulevard, Queens, was also arrested when he was allegedly found with a quantity of cocaine in his possession.
Forman, who gave no address, and Callahan, of Townsend Avenue, The Bronx, were each charged with robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of stolen property. (m)