St. Raphael’s Rectory, located next to the church at 35-20 Greenpoint Ave. (Photo: Nathaly Pesantez)
Aug. 1, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
A priest at St. Raphael’s Roman Catholic Church was allegedly attacked this morning by a man who was urinating in the church’s parking lot.
Rev. Jerry Jecewiz, 68, was in the rectory next to the 35-20 Greenpoint Ave. church when he saw a man in his 30s “relieving himself” right outside his window at around 7:30 a.m. today.
“I saw him from the kitchen window and knocked on it,” Jecewiz told the LIC Post.
Jecewiz couldn’t clearly see if the man had gone away, and made his way to the rectory’s main entrance to check out the site.
But the man was waiting right at the entrance, and was cursing before allegedly swinging at the priest’s face soon after the door opened.
“He wanted to hit me in the face, but I ducked,” Jecewiz said, adding that the man did manage to get the side of his face. “But I wasn’t hurt or anything like that.”
Jecewiz then phoned police, but not before securing the rectory. He last saw the man, who appeared disoriented and was swinging his arms, making his way to the church’s main entrance on Greenpoint Avenue.
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed that police responded to a 911 call from the site at around 7:21 a.m., but did not take a complaint report down, instead determining the case to be a dispute, according to the final disposition.
The priest, who has been at the church for about 11 years and spoke about the attack in a lighthearted tone, said something like this has never happened to him before.
“We’ve had people relieving themselves in nooks and crannies, but that happens,” he said.
He recalled having to contact police to come to their food pantry at times, where they have sometimes encountered disturbed persons, but nothing compared to this morning’s incident.
Jecewiz said his main concern was the church, as a young teenager opens up the site at around that time, with the elderly usually being the first to come into the parish. Luckily, the church was still locked.
The attack comes at a time when residents of the Blissville neighborhood claim there has been an uptick in crime and that the area’s demeanor has changed because of the three recently-opened homeless shelters.
While Jecewiz is aware of the nearby shelters that have opened, he says he hasn’t seen a change in the area, only noticing that more people have come by the church to ask to use the restroom.
“It’s an urban, gritty area here with a big, busy intersection,” Jecewiz said. “There’s lots of factories and people coming and going.”
“I hope it’s an one-off incident,” he added. “Just one of those New York City things.”
St. Raphael’s Roman Catholic Church (Photo: Nathaly Pesantez)
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14 Comments
If urinating is such a bad crime, is that why Trump is so afraid they will release the tape of a Russian prostitute urinating on him?
It’s now legal to relive oneself anywhere. Enjoy the aroma of urine. It’s one of NYC’s treats!!!
Why does my comment not get posted? What’s the LICPost’s agenda? Can’t even trust the press nevermind the elected officials!
Thanks DeBlasio. Decriminalizing public urination and plopping down homeless shelters in our neighborhood. We should dump a couple homeless shelters across the street from his brownstone and see how the NIMBY jerk likes it. Too bad the guy who took a swing at the priest didn’t run into some “neighborhood justice”…her should have received a good beating.
Frank, don’t forget fare beating as Cy Vance Manhattan DA along with his decriminalizing low marijuana levels he won’t prosecute. Add that to No stop and Frisk and you have more crime. Manhattan will see it first as some of these small crimes will still be prosecuted outside of Manhattan. Of these urinating seems to be the only one that inflicts the least harm. In the case of the priest I believe the homeless shelters around the area probably led to the assault. Some of the people there may have mental problems. All in all none of these low level crimes are any good. The fare beating costs the MTA money. Many repeat offenders were also picked up while fare beating and thrown in jail for other crimes , that won’t happen now. Crime in the subway has gone up.
Yeah, pissing in public started with DeBlasio. Go read a book dummy.
The police should have taken the Priests info on that guy. I grew up in Blissville its a sin for what this guy did. Come on have respect for Gods house, I’m glad the priest is OK. Its a sin what’s happening in a town I grew up in. We never had a problems like they have now, God bless
Marsha you are correct, they should have taken his info. This is how COMPSTAT decriminalizes its crimes and NYPD and DumBlasio says CRIME IS DOWN. Sometime hey don’t even report it. The cops turned his assault into a dispute.
Thanks to the wonderful mayor, crime is up, people can relive themselves anywhere they like, streets are filthy, gun violence is up, homeless everywhere, Also, thank you to the idiots who voted him in for a second term!
Crime is not up you imbecile. Check the data stupid.
That’s not fair what was I supposed to do? There’s no public bathrooms because the GREEDY luxury condo developers took all the space for them.
I never physically assaulted the reverend I just called him a DUMB-O-CRAT sorry if he’s such a snowflake he interpreted it as assault. Also, Hillary’s emails.
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the August 1, 2018 comment on relieving himself and complaining again about GREEDY LUXURY CONDO DEVELOPERS taking up space for the bathrooms. Hillarys e-mails and Dumb-O-crats.
Why do you keep harassing MRLIC and calling him fake? He had the name first, get your own name.
The FAKE MRLIC wrote the August 2, 2018 comment. You sir/madam did not have the name first. You were nowhere to be found when I had the name.