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A street takeover involving roughly 50 cars in Queens left residents shaken, a car torched and two neighbors injured as police cited competing emergencies and the precinct’s “large geographical area” for a delayed response.
Police said dozens of sports car drivers converged on a quiet residential street in Malba over the weekend, racing, revving engines and doing donuts in the streets.
Residents said the chaos escalated quickly.
Larry Rusch, who lives in Malba near the Whitestone Bridge, said he returned home Saturday night to find his “house was inundated with people on my driveway.”
He said he drove a private security vehicle used in the neighborhood into the street near 141st Street and South Drive to try to stop the drivers, but someone threw something inside, setting the car on fire.
“They lit up the car on fire. They were running rampant,” Rusch said. “My neighbor got assaulted really bad. He was in the hospital overnight beat up. Cracked skull. Broken ribs. Fractured jaw. So, it was terrible. It was a riot.”
Police said a 50-year-old man and 50-year-old woman were approached by a group on their lawn during the takeover.
Video shows a verbal dispute escalating before investigators say the woman was punched in the face and the man was knocked to the ground, punched and kicked. The man was taken to the hospital in stable condition and the woman refused medical treatment.
Some neighbors ran for safety.
“Then I run away because I was very scared that things would escalate in a very, very bad manner,” said resident Gino Macar.
City Council Member Vicki Paladino, who posted video of the incident to social media, said the neighborhood has endured street takeovers for years.
“For the last two years I have been begging DOT to come here and do what was necessary,” she said. “They came, they kept telling me, ‘Vicki, this doesn’t warrant a speed bump.’”
Paladino said phone logs show one resident waited 28 minutes for officers to arrive.
The NYPD said multiple emergencies stretched resources thin that night.
In a statement, a spokesperson said officers were handling “multiple priority jobs, including an arrest for an individual who was driving while intoxicated, transporting someone to the hospital, an assault, and a vehicle collision with injuries,” and said patrols will increase in the area “to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Police released images of several people they want to question in connection with the weekend chaos.
Paladino said someone could have died and hopes the incident pushes the department to respond to future street takeovers with maximum force.

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