Arrest made after murder of Air National Guard female soldier and children

Arrested boyfriend of slain Staten Island servicewoman had violent past

New York Post
By Tina Moore, Anabel Sosa and Max Jaeger
June 23, 2019

A Staten Island military man was arrested and charged Sunday in the murder of his Air National Guard girlfriend and their two young sons, police announced.

The scene of the alleged murder (left) and Alla Ausheva Richard Harbus; CNP

The arrest came as new details emerged about accused killer Shane Walker’s violent past — and his Russian-born girlfriend’s tragic story of achieving her American dream only for her life to be cut short at 37.

Cops charged Walker, 36, with murder, manslaughter, arson and criminal possession of a weapon for killing US Air National Guard Airman 1st Class Alla Ausheva along with the couple’s sons Ivan, 2, and Elia, 3.

Ausheva was found bludgeoned to death in her home Saturday near the bodies of their children, who appear to have been drowned.
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Iraq Veteran Learns to Walk Again and Then Brew Ale

Wounded in Iraq, veteran starts over again at Flagship Brewing Co.
Staten Island Advance
Lauren Steussy
September 12, 2016

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — If you want to know what a country looks like 15 years after a terrorist attack, you could look inside a certain kettle of boiling pre-fermented beer — changing, restoring and improving with time.

This past weekend, Marine veteran Ray Sumner brewed a Georgia Peach Ale at Flagship Brewing Co. There, in Tompkinsville, he's doing his time as a 54-year-old intern, embarking on a third career in the beer industry.

It's the completion of a life's trajectory, which started when the Staten Island native saw the smoke and ashes rise out of lower Manhattan from St. George. Two years after the September 11 attacks, he got "the call that no Marine can resist."

Sumner didn't have much of choice at first. In 2005, his platoon was clearing insurgents in Haditha, Iraq, when he was shot in the hip. The bullet severed an artery in his leg and landed him in a coma for 10 days.

His sergeant was among the nearly 50 killed and 450 wounded in his unit, which took on the most casualties of any other unit in the war. It took Sumner two years to learn how to walk again.
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Homeless Iraq veteran stole from Chapel then left note

Homeless Iraq war veteran stole from Staten Island chapel, left note, cops say
By John M. Annese
Staten Island Advance
January 26, 2013

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A homeless 25-year-old who served in the Iraq War stole cash from a chapel donation box in Meiers Corners, then left a note asking people to "give money to homeless veterans," according to authorities.

Casey Cocozello was arrested on the grounds of the Society of St. Paul Alba House, at 2187 Victory Blvd., last Saturday, after he made two separate trips into a locked office there that day, according to police.

On Tuesday, police hit Cocozello with additional charges, accusing him of stealing the credit card numbers of a friend who had given him a place to stay and using them to go shopping.
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Marines overcome hurdles, aid in storm cleanup

Marines overcome hurdles, aid in storm cleanup
Marine Corps Times
By Gina Harkins
Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Nov 13, 2012

NEW YORK — Jimmy Cioffi has lived in Staten Island, N.Y., for more than 25 years, but he can hardly recognize his own neighborhood.

The smell of rotting trash lingers in the air, wafting from garbage piled 10 feet high in the streets. Power lines hang down onto sidewalks; cars perch in unnatural places. Slippery thick brown mud cakes driveways and basements, brought in by the waves and storm surge caused by Hurricane Sandy, which pummeled the region Oct. 29-30.

Cioffi’s basement filled with water all the way to the ceiling and then up two more feet onto the main floor. His brother’s family, a few blocks away, had to sit in their attic for 15 hours before a boat came and rescued them, the lower levels of their home inundated.

“There was no chance to get out once you saw it coming,” Cioffi said. “When I saw the water coming under the door, I put towels down and they just washed away — it was like a river.”

Within days of the superstorm, which left homes destroyed, cities flooded, millions without power and scores dead, Marines were counting up their capabilities, preparing for a deployment within their own country. But before they could roll in to help, there were bureaucratic hurdles to be cleared. There’s a precarious balance between the quick response of military personnel in the wake of a disaster and the constitutional restrictions they face in getting troops on the ground.

And the Marines were quick to arrive on scene.
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Marine from Jersey City happily deployed to storm relief

Marine from Jersey City happily deployed to storm relief unit in Staten Island
The Jersey Journal
By Anthony J. Machcinski
on November 08, 2012

When he left his Jersey City Heights home for the Marines in 2011, 2nd Lt. Gerard Farao never thought he’d be deployed near his home. Due to Hurricane Sandy, that’s exactly what happened.

When Sandy slammed New Jersey and New York last week, Farao, along with the rest of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was deployed to Staten Island to help in humanitarian relief efforts.

“I was hoping to be deployed to Afghanistan (when I first joined the Marines),” said Farao, 23, who is stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. “We have to be ready to go anywhere in the world within an hour. I just never thought it’d be here.”

When the storm hit, Farao, a Hudson Catholic graduate, immediately became concerned about family that remained in Jersey City.

“Once (Sandy) got north, I was calling, asking if everyone was all right and if there was electricity,” Farao recalled. “In a weird way, I kind of wished I was home to experience it, just because it’s where I’ve been all my life.”

Since arriving in Staten Island last week, Farao and his unit have helped provide generators, fuel and clean water to aid in disaster relief efforts all over the area.
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Staten Island residents desperate for Marines’ help

Staten Island residents desperate for Marines’ help
NOVEMBER 5TH, 2012
BATTLE RATTLE
POSTED BY GINA HARKINS

NEW YORK – Mounds of garbage and debris are piled along the streets in Staten Island, pick-up being just one of the many services residents haven’t had access to in Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath.

Evidence of people living normal lives just a week ago now line the curbsides of the New York borough devastated by last week’s superstorm. Appliances, furniture, children’s toys and other everyday items are just dumped at the edge of the streets, since residents ran out of garbage bags to pack them into days ago.

The smell of rotting trash lingers in the air. Power lines hang down onto sidewalks.

Cars swept away by the floods sit in unnatural places like the middle of fields or on top of rocks. Slippery, thick, brown mud cakes driveways and basements, brought in by the waves and storm surge that flooded the residential neighborhood so fast that that people barely had a chance to get to safe places. Some, unfortunately, never did.

But still, when you walk through the streets of Staten Island, what you see isn’t outward anger or sorrow. People are just getting to work, cleaning out their homes and helping each other. Residents from nearby communities drove or walked the streets, offering hot food, water and clothing to those left with next to nothing.
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Our chance to help
US Marines proudly on the job
New York Post
By GREGORY HUNT
November 6, 2012

Normally, I get fuel pumped into military vehicles; now I’m pumping water out of houses and apartment buildings in the Rockaways.

I’m a lance corporal in the United States Marine Corps, a bulk-fuel specialist with the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics group based out of Camp Lejeune, NC. We’re here to help, for as long as we’re needed.

Ten days ago, as we watched the path Hurricane Sandy was supposed to take, my heart sunk. I was born and raised in Bloomfield, NJ; I knew the storm was going to be bad — but nobody knew how bad.

For the following week, I’d watch the news each night and see the devastation and destruction of places where I had many childhood memories. So when I was given word that within 24 hours I’d be going home to help, there were no words to explain how happy I was.

I just got back in September from Afghanistan, my first deployment, where my job was to supply fuel to the convoys that patrolled the area of operation. I was hoping to get put right on my next deployment — but I never thought that it would be to New York, the city I visited so often with my dad as a kid.
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10 people hurt in Staten Island Ferry Crash

Staten Island Ferry crash injures 10
Story Highlights
Ferry loses power and hits a pier at full speed, Coast Guard says
1 person injured seriously, 9 others hurt
Accident happens at St. George Terminal on north shore of Staten Island
Impact did not send any passengers overboard, spokesman says

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Staten Island Ferry lost power and hit a pier Wednesday at full speed, resulting in one serious injury and nine minor injuries, a Coast Guard spokesman said.


The New York Fire Department estimates that 750 to 800 passengers were aboard the Staten Island Ferry.

Coast Guard boats were on the scene, the St. George Terminal on the north shore of Staten Island.
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/01/ferry.crash/index.html