NYC NOW - Midday News: NYPD Investigates Brooklyn Toddler’s Death as Homicide, City Workers Blamed for Illegal Parking in Brooklyn, and the Latest on the NYC Mayoral Race

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Police are investigating the death of child in Brooklyn as a homicide. Meanwhile, a new report from Councilmember Lincoln Restler’s office says government employees are the biggest offenders in Brooklyn’s illegal parking problem. Also, the Yankees face elimination Tuesday night in Game 3 of the ALDS against the Toronto Blue Jays. And with four weeks until Election Day in New York City, Democrat Zohran Mamdani maintains a wide lead over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, while Republican Curtis Sliwa trails.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, October 7th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The NYPD is investigating the death of a one-year-old Brooklyn boy as a homicide. Officers say they found Anthony Casey unconscious when they responded on Friday to an emergency call at his Brownsville building. City medical examiners say Casey died. from blood force injuries to his torso, police have not reported an arrest yet.

Few things inspire more uniformed, unified scorn in New York City than illegal parking. Our report from Councilmember Lincoln Wessler's office says in his borough, government employees are largely to blame. Wrestler staffers fan that across downtown Brooklyn and reported most illegal parking comes from government officials in cars with parking placards. For people like Julia Garcia,

who relies on a mobility scooter, that makes moving about hard. It's annoying, very annoying, because, see, like I got my scooter, and let's say I'm driving on the bicycle lane, and they park in the bicycle lane. Now I've got to try to go around while the cars are coming. Wrestler says he'll be calling for government agencies to do a better job policing themselves. The New York Angies must win tonight or their season is over. It's game three against the Toronto Blue Jays in the Bronx just after eight. It's a best of five series.

The winner of three games advances in the playoffs. The Blue Jays clobbered the Yankees in games one and two in Toronto. Tonight, rides on their shoulders of Yankee starting pitcher Carlos Rodon, who won 18 games in the regular season. 76 and partly sunny now. Mostly sunny today with a high of 82, strong winds, chances of showers and storms tonight into tomorrow. High 66. Stay close. There's more after the break. In four weeks, voters in New York City will go to the polls to elect their next mayor. The race has whittled down to three candidates after Mayor Adams dropped out last month. Democratic candidate, Zeran Mamdani, maintains his big lead in the polls

over former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Lewa is a distant third. Now, to keep up with all the latest, we're bringing you campaign catch-up. quick weekly look at the latest on the race. Katie Honan is a reporter for the news site, the city. She joins us now. Katie, good morning. Good morning. Thanks so much for having me on. Most welcome. Katie, it's now been more than a week since Mayor Adams dropped out of the race. Do we have a better sense now of how that's affected the candidates left in the race? We haven't seen major polling changes. We haven't seen a major poll since. But what we have seen is some more money, particularly for Andrew Cuomo.

Political reported this morning that Fix the City, which is one of the PACs supporting Cuomo, they received $330,000 in contributions made in the days after Adams bowed out of the race. So I think that's where you might see the change. You know, Mayor Adams didn't have many, to say much support, but in the polls, he was polling in the single digits.

So after he dropped out, there wasn't really much to disperse to the other candidates. Momdani recently said that if elected, he would end the city's gifted and talented program for some kids. How have the education world and parents reacted to that? There was some negative reaction. Mamdani did kind of clarify that he meant for the younger students, which was former Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan. There's a test in kindergarten, but he would keep the older tests for the third grade students. The one thing that I keep in perspective is the gifted and talented program affects such a small number of students, and it kind of takes a disproportionate share of the energy, I think, for a number of reasons.

But I guess the larger concern is, especially for Mamdani, he hasn't put forth a real overall plan for education, you know, whether it's a student with special needs or just a general ed student. So I think that might be something to look out for as well. Now, Cuomo made an appearance on the view yesterday morning. Did he make any news? One thing that was sort of, you know, he was asked about his sexual harassment allegations, and he said he's much more cautious now, and he will ask for permission before getting a kiss on the cheek. But beyond that, he continued his assertion that mayoralty with Mayor Mamdani would be just like catnip for President for President Trump and his administration. He has said for months that any kind of planned federal takeover with Zaraamam Dani as much.

mayor, it would be a gift to President Trump. That was what his quote was. And I guess he's asserted that he is the tougher person and the more experienced person to take on whatever the federal administration might want to do here in New York City. A few seconds left here. What will you be watching for in the coming days, campaign-wise? I think to see if the ads matter, to see if there's any more money being put into particularly PACs, because Mamdani has maxed out for his campaign finance board contributions. And there's always surprises. between now in election day. And if I could predict them, I would. So those are the three things

that if the ads change any public perception, money, and the surprises that we can't predict, unfortunately. Katie Honan is a reporter for the news site, the city. Katie, thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day

for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.