The stickup at the “G Spot,” an illegal cards and dice club in Brownsville, turned into a bloodbath, with four people shot, including Rodney Maxwell, 58, a longtime Bellevue Hospital employee and father of three who was moonlighting there as a security guard.

Rodney Maxwell

Maxwell had survived a week-long bout with COVID in March 2020 — during the terrifying early days of the pandemic, when overwhelmed doctors were struggling to handle the deadly virus — only to die six months later from bullet wounds to the back and chest.

Brian Castro, Musah Coward and Charles Powell, all face federal murder and robbery charges, with jury selection in their case starting Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Coward, an accused gun seller who police said had ties to Brownsville, picked the den as a target and drove Powell, Castro and a fourth man to the Hegeman Ave. gambling location on Oct. 7, 2020, according to prosecutors.

The fourth alleged robber’s name is redacted in court documents; one filing describes him as a cooperating witness for the government.

Maxwell was working security at the gambling den, which had a front room facing Hegeman, an inner room where cards, craps and dominoes were played, and a backyard patio.

As prosecutors tell it in their court filings, Coward parked a Honda Civic around the corner, and stayed in the car while the other men rounded the corner and walked inside, single-file.

They then stormed through the front and back rooms toward the patio — Powell in front, followed by Castro and unnamed accomplice.

But Maxwell, the bouncer that night, jumped into action, struggling with the unnamed robber in an attempt to disarm him, the feds allege.

Their fight spilled from the inner room to the front room, which was covered by a surveillance camera. Castro rushed in to help his partner in crime, shooting Maxwell in the back, according to the feds.

The shot didn’t take Maxwell out of the fight, though, and Powell started spraying bullets at people fleeing into the backyard, wounding three men, federal prosecutors allege.

Maxwell was still fighting the unnamed robber, so Powell ran into the front room shot him again in the chest, mortally wounding him, the feds allege.

More than a month later, Castro was smoking pot in a car with an acquaintance and told him about the robbery, which he called a “lick,” saying his crew got $20,000, and describing how he shot Maxwell before his gun jammed, according to court papers. It turned out the acquaintance was recording their chat, court filings reveal.

A Patterson, N.J., police detective working with a federal gang task force recognized Powell and Castro after seeing surveillance photos the following April, and that led to Powell’s arrest in October 2021 after he got into a car crash in Clifton, N.J.

Castro and Coward were named in an indictment and arrested in March 2023.

The trio’s defense attorneys have challenged that detective’s ID in a failed attempt to get cell phone evidence thrown out.

The defense lawyers have also questioned whether the killing was part of a robbery, and Powell’s attorney, Murray Singer, argued in a Dec. 29, 2024 letter that Castro’s recorded statements about the shooting were bluster meant to boost his “street cred.”

“Had the purpose of the plan — to commit a robbery — not been successful, and Castro, having been fought off by intended victims, gotten nothing but instead had killed someone, this could be viewed as humiliating,” Singer wrote. “It makes sense, then, that Castro would try to puff up the incident.”

The lawyers for all three suspects on Thursday declined to comment.

The victim was driving the van on Utica Ave., near Linden Blvd., around 12:55 p.m. when he was shot, cops said. Medics took him to Kings County Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.

Police were looking for a second white van that fled the scene. An NYPD spokeswoman couldn’t immediately say if the shooter was also driving a dollar van.

A small bullet hole could be seen in the driver’s side window of the victim’s van, which apparently kept going down Utica before crashing into a Kia sedan.

Cops have made no arrests.

Esther Sealy, 87, was walking west along E. 88th St. at Avenue L in Canarsie around 6:46 p.m. and stepped into the crosswalk when she was struck by the driver of a 2010 Honda Odyssey making a left turn onto E. 88th St. The 39-year-old driver hit the victim and then crashed into a parked 2007 Toyota Camry that was unoccupied, cops said.

The victim suffered severe trauma to the body and was transported by EMS to Brookdale Hospital where she died.

The driver remained on scene and there were no immediate arrests as cops continue to investigate the accident.

The victim lived two blocks away from the scene.

The crooks ambushed the 39-year-old U.S. Postal Service worker as she delivered mail on Greene Ave. near Malcolm X Blvd. in Bedford-Stuyvesant about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.

The crooks, believed to be between 16 and 19, pulled a gun on the worker before running off with several packages, cops said. They have not been caught.

The pair were dressed all in black and were wearing masks, the postal worker told police.

The daring hold-up occurred five days after an on-duty letter carrier was knifed to death during a senseless fight over a spot on a sandwich line in a Harlem deli.

Ray ‘Ray Ray’ Hodges, 36, was waiting to order a sandwich at Joe’s Grocery on Lenox Ave. near W. 118th St. when he got into a quarrel with 24-year-old Jaia Cruz.

Witnesses said Hodges was about to make his order when Cruz accused him of cutting her place in line. As the argument escalated, Cruz allegedly stabbed Hodges five times with a steak knife in the neck, chest, and arm, according to a criminal complaint.

Hodges died after being rushed to Harlem Hospital.

Cruz ran to her nearby home after stabbing Hodges, but was quickly taken into custody and charged with murder, cops said.

Erlene King, 71, who worked on the 2021 primary campaign of Democrat Anthony Jones, could face between 33 and 41 months in prison when she’s sentenced in Brooklyn Federal Court April 29.

King, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud, tried to take advantage of the city’s 8-to-1 matching campaign funds program with a straw donor scheme. She submitted $25,000 in straw donations to Jones’ campaign, along with five corresponding “fictitious records,” in the hopes of getting $400,000 in matching funds, prosecutors said.

King used CashApp to send money to straw donors, who in turn donated the dough to Jones’ campaign. But the city Campaign Finance Board noticed the donations were suspicious and denied the matching funds.

Jones tried to appeal that decision at a November 2021 hearing, telling the Campaign Finance Board he was “confused” by the decision and believed his treasurer followed the rules.

The CFB’s counsel, Joseph Gallagher, said the board denied the funds after finding “28 non-credible signatures on affirmation statements.”

At the hearing, King told the board that campaign staffers collected the suspicious-looking signatures in the field, and suggested donors’ signatures might have changed as a result of getting COVID-19.

“Instead of playing by the rules New York City established for free and fair elections, the defendant attempted to use the city’s matching funds program to give the campaign an unfair advantage,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Tuesday.

Jones, who is not charged with a crime, came in eighth in a field of 12 primary candidates, getting just 3% of the vote and losing to Antonio Reynoso, who won the general election that November. Jones ran on the Rent is 2 Damn High line in the general election, and got 2.7% of the vote.

His campaign still owes more than $720,000 in debt, public records show. He raised about $83,000 in donations, but spent more than $810,000.

Zapeta, a 33-year-old Guatemalan migrant living in a Brooklyn men’s shelter, was arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on first-degree murder and arson charges. Chun ordered he remain held without bail until his next court appearance March 12.

Until recently, 57-year-old Kawam was listed as a “Jane Doe” on the indictment against Zapeta. Authorities identified her last week and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Perry on Tuesday had the document amended to include her name.

After Zapeta’s arrest, he told a trio of NYPD detectives — one of whom translated from Spanish — that he had no memory of what he’d done and that he often drank so much he would “erase the memory” of what happened and wake up at home.

The detectives confronted him with the video, with one telling him, “The best thing for us here, we want to know why you went to that woman in front of you and set fire to her. Why did you do it?”

“To tell you the truth, to be honest, I don’t remember,” Zapeta replied.

When the detectives showed Zapeta video of himself as he lit Kawam ablaze, he responded with surprise, according to court documents.

“Who is that person?” the Spanish-speaking detective asks, and Zapeta responds, “Oh, damn, that’s me.”

“That’s you, right?,” the cop continues, and Zapeta responds, “Yes.”

“Do you see what’s happening now? Do you see what you’re doing? You are setting that woman on fire. Do you remember that or not?” the detective asks.

“No, I really don’t remember,” Zapeta responds.

“But that’s you, right?” the detective asks.

“Yes,” Zapeta replies, according to the court documents.

When asked again why he did it, Zapeta responds, “I am very sorry. I didn’t mean to. But I really don’t know. I don’t know what happened, but I’m very sorry for that woman.”

Zapeta approached Kawam as she slept in an F train stopped at the end of the line at Coney Island-Stillwell Ave. station at about 7:30 a.m. Dec. 22, according to cops. They appeared to be strangers, police said.

He said nothing to her as he set her clothing ablaze with a lighter, then fanned the fire with a shirt as the flames engulfed her, according to prosecutors.

Chilling video shows Zapeta sitting on a bench on the train platform as Kawam burned to death as she stood helplessly near the subway car’s open door.

Surveillance video later recovered by cops shows Zapeta inside the subway car and a police officer’s body cam got a clear shot of his face, cops said. The NYPD quickly released images of the suspect to the media and a trio of high schoolers spotted him on another train later in the day and called 911, the commissioner said.

Zapeta was arrested by Customs and Border Patrol in Arizona on June 2, 2018, sources said, then removed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and returned to Guatemala. But he made his way back to the U.S. sometime after.

Zapeta told the detectives he came back to the U.S. illegally about five years ago, arriving in Queens with his wife’s nephew. Relatives took him in but that living situation fell apart during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I stayed with them, but in the pandemic, they threw me out because of my brother-in-law. Okay, after the pandemic I went out to work and my brother-in-law called them and told him that… my brother-in-law was working with us, and he said that all the guys that worked there were infected with coronavirus.”

Up until his arrest, he was doing construction work in Queens, meeting his employer, who he refers to as “the Mexican,” outside the boss’ house in Jamaica before a job.

“He has a lot of work. He takes us to Brooklyn, or in Queens… or Wall Street,” he told the detectives.

He finished work the day before the attack about 5:30 p.m., then after his employer picked him up and drove him back to Queens, he went to a bar in Jamaica to buy beer and get drunk, he told detectives.

Zapeta had $178.80 on him when police arrested him and told the cops processing him, “That’s all I have.”

He had to hand over his sweater and a bracelet and when the officers noted he was wearing two pairs of pants he explained, “I have two because of the cold weather.”

His lawyer, Andrew Friedman, once again reserved the right to apply for bail at a later date.

With Emma Seiwell

The thief cut the hole above Smith & 9th Street Deli + Grocery on 9th St. near Smith St. in Carroll Gardens around 3:15 a.m. Nov. 1, according to cops. Once he lowered himself inside, he took about $900 from the register and broke into an ATM, swiping even more cash.

The man also pinched some store merchandise before hoisting himself back up through the hole and onto the roof, police said.

The burglar, clad in all black clothing, made his way to the nearby 4th Avenue-9th Street subway station, where he was last caught on camera boarding a Manhattan-bound D train.

Police released video of the thief and are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Shamael Miller was shot multiple times on Neptune Ave. at W. 33rd St. around 7:15 a.m., police said.

A building worker arriving for an early-morning shift discovered Miller mortally wounded in the lobby, according to another employee.

“And he thought the guy was sleeping, so he tried to shake him up and to wake him up, and he didn’t,” the man said of his colleague. “He didn’t wake up so he went to the store, got a coffee, came back and the guy still was there laying on the floor and was not responsive.”

Building employees dialed 911, and medics rushed Miller to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, but he could not be saved. He lived in the Briarwood section of Queens, according to police.

“[This] kind of makes me a little nervous now, because I work here,” added the employee, who asked not to be named. “That was before coming in, so let’s say I would have came in early today. Would I have been involved because I was here?”

There were no immediate arrests.

The slasher got into a verbal dispute on Dec. 20 with a 50-year-old man on the staircase inside the York St. subway station at Jay and York Sts. in DUMBO around 11 p.m. The victim was first punched in the face and then slashed in the face.

EMS transported the victim to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, in Park Slope, in stable condition.

Photos released by cops show the person of interest wearing a black hoodie and gray sweatpants, with a gray backpack.

Police ask anyone with information to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers hotline at 800-577-TIPS.

Friday’s ruling removes what is likely the final obstacle to congestion tolling’s planned Sunday start, though New Jersey’s lawyer, Randy Mastro, said after the ruling he would seek an emergency appeal Friday night or Saturday morning at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

“We will continue on behalf of the state of New Jersey to do everything we can to stop congestion pricing from going forward before this remand,” he said.

That possibility notwithstanding, beginning after midnight Jan. 5, drivers will be automatically tolled when the drive on Manhattan surface streets at 60th Street or below, paying a base toll of $9 to enter the congestion zone.

“We’ve been studying this issue for five years, but it only takes about five minutes if you’re in midtown Manhattan, to see that New York has a real traffic problem,” said MTA chariman Janno Lieber in praising the ruling.

Judge Leo Gordon made the ruling from the bench late Friday night, after attorneys for the Garden State sought to clarify his Monday ruling in New Jersey’s long-running suit seeking to stop the toll. The Murphy administration’s suit — the most serious challenge to New York’s plan to toll drivers entering Midtown and lower Manhattan — argues that changing traffic patterns from trucks and other vehicles seeking to avoid the toll will unfairly impact the air quality in New Jersey.

In his Monday ruling, Gordon had issued a “remand in part” of the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of congestion tolling. The judge ordered the feds to account for why New York’s congestion pricing plan detailed specific pollution mitigations for the Bronx, but failed to detail such plans for several New Jersey towns — even though both regions are expected to see an increase in motor vehicle traffic.

During Friday’s hearing in Newark, MTA attorney Elizabeth Knauer said there was $9.8 million in mitigation funds earmarked for New Jersey communities since the June evaluation by the highway administration that would be rolled out over five years.

“There was always a commitment to provide mitigation to communities in New Jersey that warranted it,” she said.

But Mastro, the well-known litigator representing New Jersey, said residents of the Garden State are going to suffer and told the judge: “You’re the last line of defense and you already recognized that they got it wrong.”

The judge’s ruling earlier this week sparked confusion as both sides declared victory.

Gov. Hochul and Lieber both said the tolling plan would continue, as the ruling included no language requiring them to stop while the feds answered Gordon’s concerns.

But the Garden State said the ruling should stop the toll in its tracks. Attorneys for New Jersey argued that even a partial remand meant the program was no longer authorized by federal regulators, and that a lack of clarity regarding pollution mitigation should in and of itself be enough to order a temporary pause on the program.

“The irreparable harm that New Jersey will suffer once the MTA flips the switch on congestion pricing is manifest,” the Garden State’s lawyers wrote earlier this week in seeking an injunction against a Sunday start. “Beginning on Day One, New Jersey will experience vehicle traffic increases and poorer air quality.”

After four hours of closed-door deliberation Friday evening, Gordon said that his ruling was never intended to block the tolling program, and that he was not tossing the federally approved environmental studies backing congestion pricing.

“The court will be be clear that the court did not vacate the [environmental assessment] or the [finding of no significant environmental impact,]” Gordon said.

Mastro, representing New Jersey, tried one last time to stop the toll after Gordon denied the injunction, asking for a temporary pause in order to appeal to the higher Third Circuit court.

“I respectfully request you give us five days to allow the third circuit to take up the issue,” Mastro said.

Gordon denied the request.

Outside the Newark courthouse, Mastro reiterated his intent to appeal to the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.

“If we can get there tonight, we will file our emergency appeal papers tonight — otherwise we’ll file them first thing tomorrow morning,” he said.

Lieber welcomed news of the court victory Friday at a press conference in the transit agency’s downtown headquarters.

“Earlier this week, Judge Gordon in New Jersey rejected that state’s claim that the environmental assessment — the 4000 page document reflecting five years of work that had been approved by the federal government — was deficient in some way,” he said. “Today, the judge confirmed that ruling and denied New Jersey’s effort to get an injunction to stop congestion pricing from starting tomorrow night.”

New York’s congestion tolling plan, mandated by law in 2019, is meant to reduce traffic in Midtown and lower Manhattan while raising funds for the MTA’s capital budget.

Revenue from the toll is intended to back $15 billion in bonds issued by the MTA, which will in turn fund a bevy of construction and repair projects around the city’s transit network.

The toll had been set to go into effect last summer, before Gov. Hochul paused the plan three weeks before it was to start, ultimately waiting until November to re-start it at a lower initial cost to drivers.