'Molotov cocktail' thrown at Queens mosque, home

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Firefighters say someone threw what appears to be a Molotov cocktail at a mosque in Jamaica, Queens.

It happened at the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center on the Van Wyck Expressway.

A small fire broke out as a result, but was put out by the time firefighters arrived at the scene.

Police are investigating.

So far they've made no arrests.

Nearby, a Jamaica resident says someone threw two Molotov cocktails at his home at 89th Avenue and 170th Street.

A small fire was quickly put out by the fire department and there were no injuries.

Police are also investigating an incident in which a glass bottle filled with a fire accelerant was left on a counter at a bodega on Hillside Avenue in Jamaica.

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Army amputee thrown from NY roller coaster, dies

  Eyewitness NewsDARIEN, N.Y. -- A U.S. Army veteran who lost his legs while deployed in Iraq was thrown from a 200-foot-tall roller coaster at an upstate theme park on Friday and was killed.

James Thomas Hackemer, 29, was ejected from the Ride of Steel roller coaster at the Darien Lake Theme Park Resort, located between Buffalo and Rochester, at about 5:30 p.m., the Genesee County sheriff's office said.

The park confirmed a guest "came out of the Ride of Steel roller coaster" and said it was "saddened to report that the guest has passed." It said local authorities and its safety experts were investigating.

The park's website describes the Ride of Steel as one of the tallest coasters east of the Mississippi River, climbing 208 feet and reaching speeds in excess of 70 mph.

The roller coaster and surrounding area were closed after the man's death, park spokeswoman Cassandra Okon said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and the family of the guest," she said.

The death was at least the second in the last couple of months at Northeast amusement parks. In early June, an 11-year-old girl on a class trip to Morey's Mariner's Landing Pier in Wildwood, N.J., fell about 150 feet from near the top of a Ferris wheel and was killed. A state report found the ride's restraints to be working properly, and investigators haven't been able to determine how the girl, who was riding alone, got out of the Giant Wheel gondola.

Hackemer, of Gowanda, lost his right leg below his knee and his left leg at his hip because of a roadside bomb while he was deployed in 2008, authorities said. He had been living with his parents.

"It's going to help a little bit that he was happy," his mother, Nancy Hackemer, told The Buffalo News. "We shouldn't have had him for these last three years and four months."

She said the family had recently returned from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., where her son got "a new set of legs."

"He was assisted onto the ride," she said. "He was doing what he wanted to do."

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Newborn baby thrown down Brooklyn trash chute

CLINTON HILL, Brooklyn (WABC) -- There was a heart-wrenching discovery in Brooklyn on Sunday morning.

A newborn baby boy was apparently thrown down a trash chute.

The infant survived, and police have taken the mother into custody.

The incident happened in the Walt Whitman Homes in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn.

A police source said the baby fell eight floors before landing in the attached trash bag, which may have helped break his fall.

Laquasia Wright, 18, is charged with Attempted Murder and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

Sources say Wright delivered the baby boy early Saturday night inside her apartment.

One mother of three who lives in the building would not give her name but said she knows the baby's mother well.

"She's a young girl that was in an unfortunate situation. I just pray for her and her family," the woman told Eyewitness News.

Police say luckily the building's superintendent heard the baby's cries coming from inside a plastic trash bag attached to the compactor chute just after 9 a.m. Sunday.

He immediately called police.

The infant is in stable condition at Brooklyn Hospital.

While detectives canvassed the area for much of the day, parents like Ben Arnette found it difficult to explain this to their children.

"Why didn't that person take it to a precinct or a hospital. I don't understand. I have seven kids," Arnette said.

(Copyright ©2011 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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