KIPS BAY — A pair of teenage residents of the troubled First Avenue Children's Center attacked workers at a local pizza shop, according to police, an incident that came amid a push by the city to move older teens out of the facility.
Two boys, aged 16 and 17, were arrested after they attacked a pair of workers at Forcella’s, a pizza shop and bar at 377 Park Ave. South, just after 1:30 a.m. on April 22, police said.
One of the employees sustained an injury to his face and was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment, authorities said.
The 17-year-old, who police found carrying a boxcutter after searching him, was also charged in connection with the April 18 robbery at knifepoint of a 73-year-old on the Upper East Side, according to police. He is being held at Riker’s Island in lieu of $10,000 bail, according to court records.
Both teens were residents of the Children's Center, at 492 First Ave., also known as the Nicholas Scoppetta Center, according to police, a city run facility where children went missing nearly 1,600 times within a 13-month period, from 2013 to 2014.
The center is a city-run emergency shelter for children ages 0 to 21 who were taken from their homes because of abuse/neglect or because their parents were arrested and unable to care for them.
Residents of the center and their parents previously told DNAinfo that the center was plagued by indifferent staff, crowded conditions, bullying and theft — conditions that prompted the children to flee, they said.
The Administration for Children's Services began moving teens 14 and older out of the 55-bed center in 2014, after admitting that the facility was meant to be a temporary stay for children and wasn't equipped to address the needs of older teens who have ended up living there for months at a time, in some cases.
The first wave of older children were relocated to a new 12-bed facility in Long Island, another group were moved to a new 12-bed center in Park Slope, and more are set to be relocated to a new 8-bed facility in Staten Island, which is expected to open in fall of 2016, according to ACS.
The agency is still looking for additional sites to move the remaining older children from the First Avenue center, an ACS spokeswoman said.
But the April 22 arrests suggest an ongoing inability to look after the older teens at the center, who in the past told DNAinfo New York that the staff allowed them to come and go as they pleased and told them they could leave if they didn't like the conditions there.
► Read more: Kids Went Missing 1,600 Times From one ACS Center, Data Show
► Read more: Shelter Where Kids Went Missing Lacks Permit to Operate Legally, City Says
► Read more: City to Move Teens Out of Troubled Foster Care Facility
The 16-year-old in the incident was charged with assault and resisting arrest. The 17-year-old was charged with assault, resisting arrest and possession of a weapon, according to police.
The older teen was previously arrested after he and an accomplice threatened a 73-year-old man with a knife in the doorway of the victim's East 81st Street apartment building and stole $200 and a cellphone from him, police said.
The accomplice is still at large.
"The Administration for Children's Services, along with the NYPD, is investigating the circumstances that led to this troubling incident," a spokeswoman for ACS said in an emailed statement. "Our staff works every day to protect and maintain safety for the young people in our care and surroundings communities. Violence against either is taken very seriously."
