Vol. 74/No. 34      September 6, 2010

However, at a hearing three days later in Manhattan, State Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner backed the prosecutors’ request to keep Alvarez in jail for the next six weeks while they work on getting a grand jury indictment. Under state law Alvarez would have been released August 20 since six days had gone by without an indictment on the more serious charges.

Having produced no evidence that Alvarez shot at the cops, city prosecutors are having a hard time securing such an indictment so far.

Alvarez, 23, was involved in a scuffle with Luis Soto, 21, at a block party in Harlem August 8. Four cops unleashed a fusillade of 46 bullets at the two, killing Soto, who was shot five times. Alvarez was severely wounded, shot 23 times. Three other bystanders were struck by bullets. Two cops were also hit by police gunfire.

After his release from Harlem Hospital Center August 14, the police at first charged Alvarez with attempted murder and attempted first-degree assault, along with the weapons offenses. He was immediately incarcerated without bail.

The police “kicked him in the face and taunted him saying, ‘you’re going to die,’” Alvarez’s attorney, Matthew Galluzzo, told NY1 TV. “Angel remembers vividly responding, ‘No I’m not going to die.’ Obviously he’s been proven correct. He didn’t die, remarkably. He’s going to get justice for what happened.”

At the August 16 hearing District Attorney Jon Veiga described Alvarez as a common criminal with a violent past and a history of anger toward the cops. At the August 19 hearing one cop tried to make a case that Alvarez fired at them. “Shouldn’t there be a civilian witness?” Galluzzo responded. “There were 500 people on the block.”

If convicted just on the weapons charges, Alvarez would face a mandatory minimum of seven years and as much as 15 years in prison.  
 
 
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