Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park
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Friday, September 3, 2021
Vol. 70, No. 36
N E W H Y D E PA R K
BACK TO SCHOOL
MURAL UNVEILED IN FLORAL PARK
HOCHUL UPDATE ADDS 12K COVID DEATHS
PAGES 21-28
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Protesters up in arms over 2020 killing of teen Attendees demand justice for 19-year-old’s death at hands of cops BY B R A N D ON D U FF Y
PHOTO COURTESY OF CATHY ROJAS
Protesters gather outside the 3rd Precinct in Williston Park to voice concerns over Matthew Felix’s killing in 2020 and handling of the ensuing investigation.
Protesters gathered Sunday afternoon at the Nassau County Police Department 3rd Precinct’s headquarters in Williston Park to call for justice for Matthew Felix, 19, who was killed by Nassau County police officers in February 2020. The rally, organized by the Long Island Party for Socialism and Liberation, called for Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder to be removed, as well as all officers involved in the shooting.
According to an Instagram video from the page “longislandactivists,” a woman holding a megaphone said, “We’re out here today to demand justice for Matthew Felix, a young man who was not even 20 years old.” She continued, “Who was murdered by the Nassau County police, by police officers right here in this precinct. We’re out here so they can hear our voices, so they know the community is watching and isn’t going to go in silence.” The shooting occurred on Feb. Continued on Page 45
Robert Durst laughs during murder trial BY B R A N D ON DUFFY
based in Manhattan, was acquitted in 2001 in the murder of Morris Black. Durst has long Robert Durst, the heir to claimed that before killing his the Durst Organization, a mul- elderly neighbor in Galveston, timillion-dollar real estate group Texas, and dismembering his
body with an ax and bone saw, he drank an entire bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey. On Monday, during his testimony in his trial for the murder of Susan Berman, he laughed about it to prosecutors. According to the New York Daily News, Durst, 78, testified that he weighed 150 pounds when he drank the entire bottle of whiskey
before Black’s murder, which he claimed was self-defense. Prosecutors raised questions about the likelihood of drinking that much alcohol before killing someone, chopping his body up and traveling to a nearby bay to dump the remains. Durst then responded with what the report describes as an “awkward giggle” before saying to the jury, “That is my testimo-
ny.”
The Monday testimony follows what appears to be Durst’s new line of defense. According to the Daily News, Durst said last week he is “autistic and not normal” when prosecutors asked why he wouldn’t call the family of his wife, New Hyde Park resident Kathie McCormack, when she was missing. In 2003, during Continued on Page 34
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