Latest news with #Caines
New York Post
17-07-2025
- New York Post
Heroic sacrifice: NYC mom gunned down in street by estranged husband was trying to shield daughter
A woman gunned down by her homeless estranged husband in Queens last month was trying to shield her daughter from the barrage of bullets when she was killed, prosecutors said Thursday. Audwin Caines, 62, allegedly approached 45-year-old Chaneil Ramsay as she walked with her 21-year-old daughter in South Jamaica around 2:30 p.m. June 23 and started opening fire, according to the Queens DA's Office. The targeted mother and daughter ducked behind a car parked in the driveway of a home on 127th Avenue near 176th Street, court documents reveal. 5 Audwin Caines, 62, is allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife as she tried to shield her daughter, prosecutors said. NYPD 113 Precinct But as Caines got closer to the pair, Ramsay stood up, stepped away from the car and ran toward the pursuing gunman to keep her daughter out of harm's way, according to prosecutors. That's when Caines allegedly shot her at point-blank range, killing her, the DA's office charged. Ramsay collapsed onto the pavement, where police found her face down, unconscious and unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head, cops said. 5 Ramsay, who was shot in the head, was found face-down on the ground unconscious and unresponsive. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Meanwhile, Caines took off, and the victim's daughter called the cops, police said. Ramsay was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. About two hours before the murder, the victim found the front passenger window of her Jeep Grand Cherokee shattered, with a brick inside the car, the complaint said. 5 Before the murder, Caines allegedly smashed the window of Ramsay's car with a brick and sent her threatening messages on Whatsapp, prosecutors said. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock A few minutes before that, Ramsay allegedly received a slew of messages from Caines on Whatsapp, including a photo of the broken window and threats to harm her, according to the court filing. The intimidating texts included, 'I'm going to keep f–king up your s–t,' and 'You want to f–k me over now, I'm doing it to you,' prosecutors said. Caines is also accused of bashing Ramsay in the head with a full bottle of alcohol – and then stabbing her in the chest and elbow with the broken fragments – in a separate attack back on July 1, 2024, the court docs reveal. 5 Caines is also accused of stabbing his estranged wife with a broken bottle of alcohol in another attack last year, the DA's office said. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock The couple was arguing inside their Irwin Place home when Ramsay asked Caines to leave, sparking his violent outburst, according to prosecutors. Caines was arraigned Wednesday night on charges of murder, attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal mischief in connection to the cold-blooded slaying. He was also arraigned on charges of felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon, related to the broken bottle assault, prosecutors said. 5 If convicted, Caines could spend 25 years to life behind bars. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Caines was ordered held without bail by Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar, with his next appearance set for Friday. If convicted, Caines could face 25 years to life behind bars. 'As alleged, a 45-year-old woman was senselessly gunned down on the streets of St. Albans by her estranged husband, as part of an escalating series of violent incidents,' Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. 'This murder shocked the community, and my office will seek justice for the family of Chaneil Ramsay.'
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Yahoo
Criminal who slugged NY Post reporter, previously slashed two on subway, on the lam: NYPD
Two years ago a stranger sucker punched me in the ribs as I walked to work, and I became another one of the countless New Yorkers doubly victimized by a violent criminal and a broken justice system. The bruise went away in a few days. But the fear and feeling of helplessness — foreign to me as The Post's police bureau chief — lingered. Over the last few weeks, as I learned a lot more about the man who attacked me for no other reason than he could, I felt a new emotion: anger. Cops have identified the suspect in my attack as Kamieo Caines, 36, a hulking homeless man with 20 prior arrests for violent crimes, including assault and weapon possession, according to police sources. He has spent time in prison and was on parole when he attacked me, I was told. He's done this many times before — and as unbelievable as it seems — is free as I write this. He was convicted in 2019 in the bloody attack on two men with a box cutter during the evening rush inside the Fulton Street subway station in Manhattan on Dec. 17, 2017. The slashing happened about six blocks from where he punched me. Despite his proven record of violence, Caines was discharged from Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County on Jan. 18, 2022. His parole ends on April 29, 2025. Just 18 months after he was freed, he slugged me out of the blue as I walked down Chambers Street on the morning of Aug. 8, 2023 — just a few blocks from NYPD headquarters, where I work. The blow from the 6-foot-3, 280-pound Caines sent me staggering backwards, knocked the wind from me and left me gasping for air. 'That man just hit me!' I yelled as I watched my assailant move quickly down the sidewalk. 'He hit me!' I was shaken and terrified. Caines, known in the area for loitering, was last seen darting down the same 2/3 subway station on Chambers that I had exited minutes before the attack. Investigators found a video of him entering the station and were able to get a positive hit on him with facial recognition technology, police sources told me at the time. They did not tell me his name back then because they worried it would snarl any case against him, I was told. Eighteen months later, Caines is still running free. The statute of limitations runs out in my case on Aug. 8. Even though I did everything I could to help cops catch him — shouting for help, taking pictures as he fled, flagging down an officer, reporting the crime, and helping police identify the suspect — my case went nowhere, one of so many lost in the system's failure to act on common sense. The problem was my inability to pick Caines out of a photo line-up more than a month after my assault, police told me. A little research taught me it is not that simple, however, and a victim's inability to pick out a suspect in a photo array does not automatically kill a case. Police told me they have a probable cause warrant to arrest Caines, are looking for him in the city's shelter system and will arrest him if they find him. I felt some relief at the time that the creep hadn't socked me in the face or used a weapon against me. His subway victims in 2017 weren't as fortunate. The first victim needed staples and stitches to close the cuts on his face and head, and the second suffered a deep gash to his neck 'that came within centimeters of his artery,' according to a Manhattan District Attorney's Office criminal complaint. 'I walked into a melee,' victim Chris Smith, who said his neck was cut all the way across, told The Post. 'I came in through the turnstile,' the 41-year-old construction worker recalled. 'I saw a guy I know in a fight. … When you work construction and you see a guy everyday it's just natural to react to say 'What's going on?'' Smith jumped in to help his coworker, and punches were thrown, he said. When the dust settled, Smith knew he had been cut, but said he didn't realize how badly. He just knew he was bleeding. Suddenly, there was 'a sea of cops' in the station, he said. 'They were holding my neck,' he said. Police immediately posted photos of Caines on X and he was arrested two days later by a cop who saw him selling subway swipes at the South Ferry subway station, according to police. Caines pushed an officer who tried to arrest him and ran, the criminal complaint states. Police caught up to him and used pepper spray to subdue him, a source said. During the arrest, cops found four gate keys, which allow access to the transit system, and 16 bent Metrocards, which can also be used for free access. Once he was locked up at the NYPD's Transit District 2 in Lower Manhattan, he 'punched the light inside the cell and ripped it off,' according to cops. Prosecutors charged him with two counts of assault, possession of burglar's tools, criminal mischief, petty larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument. But he was only convicted of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and sentenced to two-to-four years in state prison. Retired NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone, a criminal justice professor at Penn State, told me a criminal's past behavior matters. 'They need to locate him and put him back in prison because that's where he belongs,' Giacalone said. 'In order to determine the future behavior of criminals, just take a look at their past.' Caines is currently listed as a parole absconder by the state. An arrest would send him back to prison and remove him from the Big Apple's streets. The NYPD warrants squad is actively searching for him. But at this rate, I have no faith that he will ever be locked up. And that makes me afraid for his future victims — and angry with a justice system that allows it.
