New York News Bits

Man killed on subway by exterminator gone mad was mentally ill germophobe
BY Samuel Goldsmith
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

It was a clash of two men on the edge. The straphanger killed by an exterminator gone mad was a mentally ill germophobe who used his bag to keep people at a safe distance, friends said Sunday.

"He didn't like people to sit next to him," said Phenix Hall, a volunteer who befriended Dwight Johnson at a Manhattan soup kitchen years ago. "Dwight was famous for placing his bag on the seat beside him." The 36-year-old drifter was knifed in the neck early Saturday after arguing with bug man Gerardo Sanchez, 37, who wanted to sit next to Johnson on the half-empty D train. Johnson was "very paranoid" and had an erratic temper, Hall said. The two had a...full story

Fleeing Queens youth riddled by 11 police bullets, but angry kin say he didn't deserve to die

BY Joe Jackson and Joe Kemp
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Cops blasted 14 shots and killed a Queens teenager they said pointed a gun at them - but the slain 18-year-old's family insisted Sunday he didn't deserve to die.

Dashawn Vasconcellos, who had no criminal record, was hit by 11 bullets, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office.

The teen fled from four plainclothes cops who spotted him and two friends inside Bayswater Park in Far Rockaway about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, police said. When cops caught up with the teen, he drew his gun and pointed it at the officers, cops said. "Despite repeated orders for him to drop the weapon, the suspect refused and was shot in the torso....full story

After inflating rent, Brooklyn landlords find storefront empty during sour economic times

BY Erin Durkin
DAILY NEWS WRITER

After almost 25 years of running their Cobble Hill dry cleaners, Kyung Dong Oh and his wife Kyung Ja Oh closed the doors for good in March of last year.

The landlord wanted to hike the rent for Trusting Cleaners from $2,500 to $6,500 a month, and the Ohs couldn't afford it.

"It was hard," said Kyung Dong Oh, an immigrant from South Korea who opened the shop in 1984, and saw it become a beloved neighborhood fixture. "My store was not only a store, it was a meeting place."

Twenty months later, the space on the corner of Court and Baltic Sts. still sits empty. Landlord Dominic Cusimano is still asking $6,500 for the space - and no one has bitten.

It's one of several cases around the borough where landlords saw gold during boom times and shed longtime.....full story