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Glen COVe
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Londell Wheeler, pride of GCCSD
What’s Santos saying now?
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VOL. 32 NO. 14
MARCH 30 - APRIL 5, 2023
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HERALD $1.00
Female firsts share stories of success By ROKSANA AMID ramid@liherald.com
Adrienne Daley/Herald photos
VICE ADMIRAL JOANNA Nunan, left, and Martine Materasso, chief of the New York Police Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau and the commanding officer of the NYPD’s 41st Precinct, shared stories at the International Women’s Day Female First Conference on March 20 at Glen Cove City Hall.
City Hall was buzzing with excitement March 20 at the Inter national Women’s Day Female First Conference as a crowd waited to hear from extraordinary women who broke the glass ceiling. Geraldine Hart, the first female Suffolk County police commissioner; Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan, the first female superintendent of the United States Merchant Marine Academy; and Martine Materasso, the first female chief of the Counterterrorism Bureau of the New CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
Glen Cove commuter alleges assault at city’s LIRR station By ROKSANA AMID ramid@liherald.com
The morning of March 22 was warm and a welcome surprise for commuters on the platform at the Glen Cove station of the Long Island Rail Road. Mor ning commutes in Glen Cove are typically quiet. However, at 8:10, one Glen Cove commuter, Bob (not his real name) alleges, he was assaulted while waiting for his train. This comes on the heels of a recent increase in major crimes last year on the LIRR, which were up by 73 percent through last August — from 45 during the first eight months of 2021 to
78 for the same period in 2022. In January, the Metropolitan T r a n s p o r t at i o n Au t h o r i t y assigned 60 officers to start their days at 5 a.m., boarding LIRR and Metro-North trains to ride into the city during the early rush and then making the return trips during the evening to ease rider anxiety over the increased crime rate. Bob said that the altercation occurred when the assailant, whom the MTA has identified as Michael Gray, a Flushing resident, was smoking marijuana close to him. “I asked him not to blow smoke in my face and he threatened me, so I called Glen Cove
Police, because I have previously been told by the MTA that the Oyster Bay line is ‘too far away’ for them to respond to anything,” Bob explained. He said that when he was on the phone with the Glen Cove Police Department to tell them he was being threatened, Gray punched him in the face. Bob sustained no injuries in the assault, but said the incident made him late to work. The MTA charged Gray with harassment on Wednesday. Jimmy Ayres assisted Bob during the altercation. While in his truck, the Glen Cove sanitation worker happened to glance toward the train platform. He
said he saw a man run toward Bob, and the two men were the only ones on the platform. “You could see he was going after someone,” Ayres, a former security guard, said. “He was running towards somebody, and you could see the rage. If (the man) would have kept going with that rage that he had, who knows, he could throw (Bob) on
the track.” Ayres got out of his truck and walked up the ramp to speak to the assailant, who stopped running toward Bob. He told Ayres he was angry about being asked to stop smoking, but that there was “no problem.” Ayres heard Bob telling the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2