Rash of Crime on Beach 109th Connected to St. John’s Home

By Katie McFadden

A series of crime incidents rocked Beach 109th Street last week. Beginning Thursday, August 15, teenagers were found involved in a home burglary, an attempted break in at Coastal Market and an assault on a neighbor, leaving residents wondering, what’s next? As investigations unfold, at least two perps that were apprehended in two of the incidents were found to be residents of St. John’s Home Residence for Boys.

On the morning of Thursday, August 15, Tracy McCafferty woke up on her couch to a nightmare at around 7 a.m., to find the front door of her Beach 109th bungalow open. She turned around to look for her phone, which had been plugged in behind her, to find it was missing. So was her smartwatch, her car keys and her daughter’s work bag from The Rockaway Hotel. McCafferty went upstairs where her daughter and her boyfriend were sleeping to ask her daughter if she had her phone. She didn’t. “I knew something happened, that somebody had been here,” she said.

McCafferty then went outside to find her car completely rifled through, all the contents of the glove compartment and side storage spaces, thrown on the floor. Inside, she spotted her car keys, but the key fob, needed to open the doors and drive the car, which is a stick shift, was gone. She called 911. As her laptop was still in her home, McCaffrey used the Find My iPhone feature to set an alert to see if it would ring. She heard a ringing outside. Across the street, outside of the mechanic, she miraculously found her phone, which had been passcode locked, her watch, which had a dead battery, and the contents of her daughter’s work bag, scattered around the street. However, her credit and debit cards that were in a pocket in her phone case were gone, as well as her daughter’s house keys. Police investigated for several hours, were able to open the car and found a boxcutter that didn’t belong to McCafferty, inside. “He broke into my house, while I was sleeping, reached over me to get my phone, and he had a weapon on him. If I had woken up, who knew what would have happened,” McCafferty said, adding that she had taken Benadryl for allergies the night prior, falling asleep around midnight.

McCafferty didn’t have cameras, but she says footage from the mechanic across the street shows a young boy entering the block sometime after 3 a.m., and The Rockaway Hotel provided footage to the police. McCafferty has since ordered cameras and her neighbor and landlord, Andrew Gifford, has had his eyes on his cameras ever since the incident. That led him to catching a perp in the early morning hours of Monday, August 19. “My landlord at 3:15 this morning came banging on my door to call the cops and I opened the door, and he was freaked out, I called 911. He and his friend had been watching a movie and he was keeping an eye on the cameras and lo and behold these two kids show up, from St. John’s Boy’s Home. Andrew and his friend and tenant Jim Thompson grabbed the one kid and the other took off on a bike. Police later found him and arrested them both,” McCafferty said.

According to police reports, with that incident, a juvenile report was filed for stealing a bike that was in front of the home. One kid was arrested for attempted petty larceny and was released back to St. John’s Home on Beach 110th Street on Monday. As Thursday’s incident is still under investigation, it is unclear if the teen who was apprehended had anything to do with the burglary at the residence.

Those incidents bookended two others over the weekend on Beach 109th Street. On Saturday, August 17, just after 3 a.m., a bystander made a 911 call to report a teenager attempting to enter Coastal Market at 108-19 Rockaway Beach Drive through the window. According to Coastal owner, Sam Friedman, some folks who were leaving Healy’s Pub spotted the teen, approximately 15 years old, attempting to enter the store through the window and the boy fled as they called police. Police arrived but could not locate the boy and nobody was inside the store. One of the window screens was open, but nobody had entered the store. This incident remains under investigation.

Later on Saturday, at around 11:20 p.m., police responded to a call of an assault in front of 172 Beach 109th Street. According to police, a man spotted a teen pulling on his car door. He confronted the teen, who then grabbed a rock from the street and hit the man in the head, causing injury. The 39-year-old victim was transported by EMS to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in stable condition. Pursuant to an investigation, the perp was arrested and charged. The suspect, Sebastian Derizan, 18, is a resident of St. John’s Home.

As Derizan is 18 years old, in his instance, he was charged as an adult. He faces four counts including a B felony intent to cause murder, a B felony assault with intent to cause serious injury with a weapon, a D felony assault with intent to cause serious physical injury and a misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon with intent to use. Derizan was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Monday, August 19. He pled not guilty to all four charges. Derizan remains in jail in Rikers with a bail set at $35,001 or a $75,001 bond. His next court appearance is set for Friday, August 23.

With Derizan and at least one teenager apprehended on Monday confirmed to be from the St. John’s Residence for Boys, concerns are once again growing over the management of the facility.  St. John’s, located at 150 Beach 110th Street, is a residential foster care agency for children ages 12 to 21.

McCafferty questioned why the facility does not have a curfew, as these boys committed their crimes from 11 p.m. to after 3 a.m. “They have no curfew there. They don’t have to be in at any time. They’re juvenile delinquents and they’re letting them roam free. I don’t understand why there is not a curfew,” McCafferty said. “They have been on quite a roll the past week. I am glad they were caught on Monday, but to what end? They won’t be held. Basically, they have no rules to follow. Why are they allowed to terrorize our community?”

According to 100th Precinct Community Affairs Officer Victor Boamah, the 100th Precinct and community leaders have attempted to make breakthroughs with the residents of St. John’s. “A year ago, we started this program where we bring in community leaders to speak with them, especially with boys that are high risk, and we encourage them to change their ways. We meet with them every Thursday afternoon,” Boamah said.

McCafferty hopes more can be done. “There should be repercussions for their actions. I know the police are spread thin, but I think someone in higher authority should step in and say, why is there no curfew? The bottom line is these kids are in this place because they’re juvenile delinquents. Get them into a place where there’s more authority and oversight,” she said.