The protesters met in front of the Barclays Center about 2 p.m. before splitting up into groups, with one group marching northwest to the bridge, according to demonstrators.

More than one hundred protesters took over the bridge, blocking traffic on the upper-level west-bound lanes as they marched towards Manhattan, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry and police.

Birds-eye footage that Daughtry posted on X showed officers intercepting the protesters, then taking several into custody.

“More than an inconvenience, this is a public safety hazard,” Daughtry wrote in the post. “The NYPD will always protect freedom of speech and protest, but we will not stand for lawlessness!”

Protesters later gathered in Chatham Square near the Criminal Courthouse, waiting for arrested protesters to be released. Cops said 150 people were taken into custody in total.

Protester Nas Issa, 26, said the Saturday rally was held to commemorate the 76th anniversary of ‘Nakba’, the annual observation of mass Palestinian displacement during the 1948 establishment of Israel.

“What we are seeing is history repeating itself with the destruction of homes, the mass displacement of people, the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians,” she said, “And so that’s why we called this march for today, both to honor the ‘Nakba’ but also to call for an end to the ongoing genocide.”

Last year, the UN General Assembly requested that the anniversary of the ‘Nakba’ be commemorated on May 15, for the first time in history.

In response to the recent robberies, the NYPD said Saturday that is has stepped up patrols in the park. But visitors were still wary.

“It’s a little unnerving,” Upper West Side resident Deborah Moralez said about the jump in robberies as she entered the park at 97th St. on a balmy, sun-dappled Saturday afternoon. “I’m a little blown away by it actually.”

Moralez, 69, enjoys taking walks through Central Park on the weekends. Normally, she feels “fairly safe,” she said, but the recent robberies have given her pause.

“It’s very unsettling, but it’s not going to stop me from coming into the park,” she said defiantly.

Cops have seen a fivefold jump in robberies in Central Park this year, from three last year to 15 as of last Sunday.

That number doesn’t include the three that happened within 27 hours beginning Thursday night, when a mugger punched and sexually threatened a 28-year-old woman inside the park at W. 97th St., right where Moralez entered Saturday.

The woman was walking through the park about 7:15 p.m. when her attacker grabbed her from behind, cops said. He demanded her phone and wallet, then said he wanted to have sex with her before he punched her, cops said.

The victim purposely fell to the ground and curled up, tucking her bag against her body to stop the thief from grabbing it or trying to take off her clothes, cops said. The thief ran off with the woman’s phone, and she was not seriously harmed.

At 6:15 a.m. on Friday, three young men with a handgun robbed a 42-year-old man who was taking photos of the Pond near E. 59th St. and East Drive. One of the thieves put a gun to the victim’s head while his two accomplices repeatedly punched him in the face and knocked him to the ground before making off with his cell phone and wallet.

The mayhem continued about 9:40 p.m. Friday night when a crew of teenage muggers tried to swipe the cell phone from  25-year-old kindergarten paraprofessional Ashikur Chowdhury near E. 109th St. and East Drive.

Chowdhury told the Daily News one of teens put a gun to his face and pulled the trigger, but it only clicked.

“At that point, I should have been scared but was not,” Chowdhury said. “I was like… ‘Well if you’re gonna pull the gun, you better pull the trigger.’”

Instead, he said the two muggers took off, apparently spooked after Chowdhury, who stands at about 6-foot-2 and weighs over 200 pounds, then told them to leave before “this s–t gets worse.”

No arrests have been made in any of the three cases.

Parkgoers said they are as cautious as possible when walking through Central Park.

“I don’t listen to music. I do try to be aware of my surroundings. I avoid areas where it looks like there’s not a lot of people around,” Sonya Kim, 34, told the Daily News. “I avoid nighttime, but otherwise I don’t have any other rules. I haven’t really felt unsafe.”

Leland Hale, 29, enjoys coming to Central Park near E. 59th St. and East Drive to practice his cello on the weekends. He was surprised the robberies had occurred in such heavily traveled parts of the park.

“At 6 o’clock in the morning this time of the year the sun’s out,” he said. “It’s very concerning. This area specifically. It’s more public than most of the park. You’ve got to go a little bit deeper into the park to get a little seclusion.

“I’ve got a wife. I’ve got kids at home,” he said, thinking about what he would do if he crossed paths with a mugger in the park. “If they want to take my phone, fine. I can get a new phone. None of that’s more important than making sure I make it home alive.”

Kim believes that when it comes to safety, Central Park is just like the rest of the city — and she’s not planning on leaving the Big Apple anytime soon.

“I don’t think I would avoid the park because of [the robberies],” she said. “I just feel like these incidents, you never know when it’s going to happen.”

And, despite the recent uptick in robberies, Central Park is still “one of the best places on Earth,” parkgoer Susan Cushing, 55, added.

“I don’t think it’s changed drastically,” she said. “I feel like it’s patrolled enough. If you need a policeman, you can find one.”

The students, calling for divestment in Israel by their university, quickly set up tents behind the John A. Paulson Center near Bleecker St. and Mercer St. just after 5:30 p.m. chanting “disclose, divest, we will not stop we will not rest!”

But then folded their tents a short time later, reportedly after an agreement with NYU officials, but vowed to spend the night.

Similar protests have popped up across the city and nationwide in recent days following the Columbia encampment that launched on April 17.

A similar encampment Monday night at NYU’s Gould Plaza on W. Fourth St. was cleared by ranks of NYPD officers who pepper-sprayed protestors and arrested students and faculty. Some protestors threw plastic water bottles and a metal chair at officers.

NYPD were quickly called to the protest, with a few dozen officers standing on Bleecker St. by 6:23 p.m. as protestors targeted the university president directly chanting “Linda Mills you can’t hide, you’re abetting genocide!”

Later, NYU campus safety members took over for the NYPD officers who had lined the encampment and later left.

NYPD officials said they made no arrests, and some 200 protestors remained Friday evening.

Police were called to Rogers Ave. near Park Place in Crown Heights for reports of a man shot just before 4:10 p.m., cops said.

When they arrived, they discovered a 26-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the neck and stomach.

Medics rushed him to Kings County Hospital, where he died just before 4:40 p.m., police said.

A gunman wearing a gray shirt and black pants was spotted taking off on foot eastbound on Park Place, they added.

Cops were working to track him down later Tuesday afternoon.

The victim’s name was not immediately released.

About a block away from the gunfire, a neighbor was walking with her 3-year-old nephew.

“We were gonna come here, to Rogers Ave., but something in my mind said, ‘No, don’t come here,'” recalled Nikitta Al-Amin, 33. “So we just turned the corner and went the other way.

“I thank God that I listened to my mind,” the woman added.

Nikitta’s mother told the Daily News the shooting was the second incident on the block in less than a year.

“But the other person survived,” said Shariz Al-Amin. “I just wish that the government would do more against guns because these guns are not walking in here by themselves. It’s like with the crack epidemic.”

“We were having an amazing time and then as soon as it was time to get off the boat, that’s when the commotion started,” said one woman who wished to stay anonymous.

Police responded about 5 p.m. to a 911 call for a knife assault on a party yacht dubbed the ‘Cornucopia Majesty,’ docked at Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army Terminal near 58th St. in Sunset Park.

“We were standing there and everybody started fighting,” said one witness who asked to remain anonymous. “Then I see a guy got stabbed, laid in his car, blood running off his chest and a whole bunch of cops started coming in.”

Police found a 32-year-old man stabbed once in the lung, a 40-year-old man stabbed four times in the chest and abdomen, and a 28-year-old man who had been whacked in the head with a bottle. Two other people were injured but refused medical attention, the FDNY said.

Medics rushed the injured partygoers to NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn where they were all expected to survive, cops and police sources said.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the squabble, cops said.

“Everybody was trying to get away from the rowdiness. Stampede, everybody shoving. That’s dangerous,” said Kevaun Whitely, 27.

BYFAR Entertainment, the group that hosted the bash, posted a statement to Instagram stating, “Unfortunately, a crime scene developed by the pier which has caused the postponement of the night event.”

A previous post of theirs detailed information for a second event on the ‘Cornucopia Majesty’ slated for 6 p.m. Saturday.

“BYFAR Entertainment has always been a beacon of safe events in New York City and this rare occurrence has never been the norm with us,” their statement continued.

No arrests have been made. Officials allowed five people to exit the yacht at a time and conducted searches and witness interviews as they continued their investigation, partygoers said.

“I’m glad we got out safe. At the end of the day I hope nobody passed away from all this,” Whitely said.

With Rocco Parascandola

More than four hundred people filled the Frank R. Bell Funeral Home on Sterling Place near Classon Ave. in Crown Heights for Spain’s funeral service.

“To have a young lady killed just for refusing someone’s attention — that’s a hard one to swallow,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who attended the service. “I’m hoping we can really take some time to look at what we’re doing and what we need to be doing, because Samyia should be here … I have daughters so it always hits a lot different.”

Williams said he spoke to the girl’s grieving parents, offering them “prayers, tools and comfort.”

“… they just want their daughter back,” Williams said.

Mourners shed tears, prayed and sang while photos of Spain in happier times flashed on several TV screens. Some loved ones wore t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts with Spain’s portrait on the front.

Lee Bozier, who drove the victim’s twin sister to the service, said he had trouble accepting the senseless motive for Spain’s slaying.

“When a female says, ‘No’, that means no. Just let it go,” said Bozier, 52. “I don’t know why he tried to attack a female. That’s being a coward. He’s going to pay with consequences for what he did.”

“She’s taking it real hard,” Bozier said of the surviving twin, Sanyia, who also got knifed in the March 17 attack.

A flower arrangement near Spain’s casket spelled the word “Twin.”

Spain and her sister Sanyia took a break from a family game night to grab snacks at Natural Plus deli on Fourth Ave. and St. Marks Place in Park Slope when a man began chatting them up at about 2:20 a.m., cops said.

“He was very aggressive to one of the girls, trying to get her contact information,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny previously said of the accused killer, 20-year-old Veo Kelly.

When Spain didn’t take to Kelly’s advances, the sisters argued with him before things turned physical, Kenny said.

“He had a knife in his hand and was saying, ‘I’m gonna stab y’all in the face,’” Sanyia previously told The News. “I’m telling everyone to back up. And he pushed little Samyia to the ground.”

When it appeared Kelly was going to charge toward Samyia, the twins’ older brother stepped in and punched him, sending him to the ground as the group started brawling.

“As I was going to grab [Samyia’s phone], he stabbed me in my arm,” Sanyia said of Kelly. “Samyia then asked him to give her the phone back, and he stabbed her in the neck.”

Samyia was stabbed in the chest, cops said. Medics rushed the sisters to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, but Samyia could not be saved.

Five days after the deadly attack Kelly turned himself in to cops with his attorney at Brooklyn Criminal Court. A judge held him without bail on charges including murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon.

Kelly is set to return to court Monday, records show.

Torrence Holmes was arrested at his Manhattan residence Saturday for the fatal stabbing of 29-year-old Tsering Wangdu during an early New Year’s Day brawl at a Queens bar. Holmes was charged with manslaughter, criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with evidence.

Wangdu and his 30-year-old roommate were celebrating the new year at KTM Bar and Lounge on Broadway near 76th St. in Elmhurst when patrons and bouncers began arguing about 4 a.m., cops said. Wangdu attacked Holmes first, according to police.

In the melee, Wangdu was stabbed in the leg and his roommate stabbed in the chest and face, cops said. Medics rushed the pair to nearby Elmhurst Hospital Center, where Wangdu died.

Friends of the victim said that he was “a peacekeeper all the time” and had hoped to sponsor a Tibetan orphan to bring to America.

Gunshots rang out in Tompkins Square Park near Avenue A and E. Ninth St. in the East Village about 12:47 p.m. as scores of visitors enjoyed Saturday’s 60-degree temperatures, cops said.

Sparrow Byrnes, 10, said he was watching a hockey game in the park from his family’s apartment window when he heard gunfire followed by a person yelling, “There’s a shooting! There’s a shooting! Someone has a gun!”

“I heard five bangs. I didn’t see them shoot it. I didn’t see what they looked like,” said Sparrow. “Everyone ran out of the park. Some people stayed in the skateboard park.”

People ran from the Avenue B side of the park — which was away from the shooting scene — “because no one wants to be harmed,” said parkgoer Trevonni Stokes, 26. “It’s too much of a beautiful day to die.”

When police arrived, they found a man in his 30s shot in the buttocks and a woman in her 50s with a gunshot wound to the right hip.

EMS took both victims to Bellevue Hospital. Neither injury was believed to be life-threatening, cops said.

Both victims were hit by stray bullets, cops said. It was not immediately clear who was targeted by the gunman, who ran off west on E. Ninth St..

“It was crazy. I was very scared,” said Sparrow.

No arrests have been made. Cops said the gunman was wearing a black ski mask, a black hoodie with white lettering and was carrying a tan tote bag.

Cops on Saturday were scouring the area for surveillance footage that could help them identify the shooter.

Stacey — her legal name was Anastasia Ledwith — was near home on the Upper West Side about 2:45 a.m. Saturday  when her gas-powered Roughhouse Sport scooter ended up under the wheels of an oil delivery truck, police said.

Ledwith’s wife, Valerie Perez, said she “always” worried about her scooter riding.

“But she was super good at it. She was super good at it,” Perez said. “We’ve had it [the scooter] for the fifteen years we’ve been together. When we got together, she got it right away.”

Ledwith, 57, was heading east on W. 76th St. near Central Park West around 2:45 a.m. when she tried to navigate around an oil delivery truck ahead of her, cops said.

Witnesses heard Ledwith beeping the horn of the scooter, which police said was properly licensed and registered. Perez said Ledwith habitually wore a helmet.

As Ledwith tried to overtake the moving oil delivery truck, her scooter struck its side, said police. In the collision, Ledwith fell under the truck’s tires, and was run over, cops said.

She was declared dead at the scene, a block from her home.

The scooter was lodged under the truck, and sent up sparks as it was scraped against the pavement, witnesses told police.

The truck driver at first wasn’t aware of the collision, said cops. Only after the driver turned right from W. 76th St. onto Central Park West did he realize something was wrong. He pulled over to investigate, and found the mangled scooter under his rig, said police.

Perez, 55, woke up at 4:30 a.m. and wondered why her wife of six years wasn’t home from work. “Then at five, the cops came and told me she was in a scooter accident and passed away at the scene,” she said.

“She goes by DJ Stacey to everybody,” Perez said. Ledwith worked days as a wholesale wine salesperson, and worked many nights as a DJ, a passion of hers since she was a teenager.

“She does it here in the city, and she’s DJed in Cherry Grove on Fire Island for over 20 years,” Perez said. “She’s originally from Long Island. She’s got a very big Long Island following.”

“She just made everybody dance and laugh and smile,” Perez said.

“She loved when people came up and requested things [songs]. A lot of DJs don’t like that. She loves it. She would never ever say ‘No’ to a request if she had it, and if she didn’t, she’d find it for you if you requested it.”

“The boys loved her because she’s just a fun DJ, nothing serious about it. Just go have a fun time at the bar with her.”

Ledwith had a dog she loved, and enjoyed hanging out at Blondie’s, a sports bar on W. 79th St. a few blocks from her home.

“I loved everything about her, but the thing I love about her is that she adored me,” Perez said. “Everybody knew that and if you speak to anybody they’ll say, ‘Stacey, all she did is adore me.'”

“She was very beloved.”

No criminal charges were immediately filed against the oil truck driver.

“He’s a symbol of freedom, perseverance and strength and overcoming all odds,” said Manhattan resident Brittanie McCormack, 31.

Flaco also stands for “getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things,” McCormack said Saturday.

Which Flaco did — though his keepers thought his freedom of movement was not good for him.

Flaco left his home at the Central Park Zoo on Feb. 2, 2023 after someone opened his cage.

In his year of uncaged freedom, Flaco flew up and down Manhattan. His life came to a sad end late Friday when he flew into a building on W. 89th St. on the Upper West Side, zoo officials said.

Flaco, in the end, met the same fate as hawks and other birds flying around the city: glass windows. Birds do not see clear glass windows as a barrier and usually fly into them at full speed, the Audubon Society said.

“The downed owl was reported to the Wild Bird Fund by people in the building,” the Central Park Zoo said in a statement.

Preliminary necropsy results show Flaco’s death was “consistent with death due to acute traumatic injury,” the Central Park Zoo said Saturday evening.

“The main impact appears to have been to the body, as there was substantial hemorrhage under the sternum and in the back of the body cavity around the liver,” the zoo said in a statement. “There also was a small amount of bleeding behind the left eye, but otherwise there was no evidence of head trauma. No bone fractures were found.”

Flaco was in “good body condition” when he died, the statement said. Before he fled the zoo a year ago, Flaco weighed 4.2 pounds. When he died, he weighed 4.1 pounds — a difference of around two ounces.

About 365 million to 1 billion U.S. birds are killed annually in collisions with windows, the Audubon Society said. Collisions with windows are the second leading cause of bird mortality — second only to free-roaming cats.

Upper West Sider Jacqueline Emery was visibly choked up about Flaco’s death.

“The last night I saw him was Friday the 16th,” Emery, 45, said at Flaco’s oak, near Central Park’s East Drive around E. 104th St.

“He looked perfectly healthy. He was hooting. He had caught a pigeon,” Emery said. “We watched him eat the pigeon.

“I’m shocked and devastated by his death. I am grateful that I had over a year with him to watch him transform into a wild owl and I’m heartbroken as so many people are.”

Flaco’s departure from the zoo a year ago sparked a massive owl hunt. He quickly became a social media sensation as New Yorkers posted images of the regal owl on trees throughout Central Park and the West Side.

Flaco’s park adventure also quickly became a highlight for New York City birders who photographed and reported on his movements.

Central Park Zoo officials suspended their efforts to get Flaco back in his cage after two weeks of chasing him around the park.

They’d tried to entice him with food and “recordings of eagle owl calls,”  but to no avail.

“Though he showed some interest in the calls, the attempt was unsuccessful,” zoo officials said at the time. “Efforts at recovering the bird have proven more difficult since he has been very successful at hunting and consuming the abundant prey in the park.”

Zoo workers continued to keep an eye on Flaco and were “prepared to resume recovery efforts if he shows any sign of difficulty or distress.”

Central Park Zoo officials blamed Flaco’s death on the vandal who ripped open the owl’s enclosure, allowing him to fly away.

“We are still hopeful that the NYPD, which is investigating the vandalism, will ultimately make an arrest,” zoo officials said.

“We will miss you, Flaco, and we know you will be missed by the long-term birders of New York City, those inspired by your presence, and the New Yorkers you brought out to experience birding for the first time,” the NYC Audubon said on X.

“Flaco will live on in our memories and in the positive actions we can take on his behalf, and for all the birds Flaco shared the city with,” the Audubon Society said.

“His tragic death is a reminder that our actions can protect wildlife: prevent collisions by making glass #birdfriendly.”