Tags Posts tagged with "Murder"

Murder

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It’s as if we are living in a James Bond movie but with one small difference: These events are real. A Saudi journalist walked into his country’s embassy in Turkey, we learn, and never came out. He entered at 1:14 p.m. Oct. 2, around the time he had been instructed to come, to pick up papers that would enable him to wed his Turkish fiancée. The wedding was scheduled for the next day. She was waiting outside in the car for him to re-emerge. There is video of him entering the building but none of him leaving. She waits outside but in vain. She does not see him again.

The journalist, we continue to learn, is Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident in his country and critic of the royal family who felt sufficiently at risk to leave and move to the United States. He lived in Virginia and was a Saudi contributor to the Washington Post, for which he said he could write freely. Khashoggi was good friends with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In addition to the video at the Saudi Consulate, there are further videos of two Saudi charter planes landing at the Istanbul airport the preceding night and that same day. Those disembarking were 15 men, all apparently known to the Turkish officials as members of Saudi intelligence. One was identified as an autopsy specialist who carried a bone saw. They all came to the embassy. Late in the afternoon, all reboarded the planes and returned to Saudi Arabia.

Turkish authorities claim to have video and audio showing that Khashoggi was killed in his country’s embassy and his body dismembered. To date, they have not shown the evidence, claiming they do not want to expose intelligence sources. Until now the Saudi government has denied any knowledge or connection with the events in the embassy but has in the last couple of days changed its story. As a result, it now suggests that the journalist was accidentally killed while being interrogated.

Aside from the morbid fascination with these events, why should we in the United States care? We are directly involved because Khashoggi, though still a Saudi Arabian citizen, lived here and was a well-known columnist. Further, Saudi Arabia is a fulcrum of President Donald Trump’s Mideast policy, both in the context of any Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, in the Middle East wars and also in our effort to diminish the influence of Iran. In addition, the Saudis buy billions of dollars of military arms from us and play a major role in the supply chain of oil. The president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is known to have cultivated a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is effectively controlling the government. In the past, members of the Bush family too, while in office, were closely tied to the Saudi royals.

Now prominent members of Congress are urging Trump to impose economic sanctions on Saudi Arabia. Trump is caught between all of the previously given reasons not to alienate the Saudi government, and the outrage and disgust of world leaders at a possible grisly murder that is assumed to have been authorized by “MBS” — how the crown prince is known. Revulsion is plain to see as some corporate leaders have withdrawn from a global economic conference, the Future Investment Initiative — known as “Davos in the Desert” — that is scheduled in Riyadh for next week. The conference is seen as something of a prestigious triumph for MBS.

So far, Trump has offered the suggestion that “rogue killers” may be responsible for the possible murder, even as he threatened “severe punishment” if the Saudi royal family were found to be involved. Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, is still slated to participate in the conference. A decision on his going is expected by Friday.

So what will carry the day here, humanitarian or political concerns? Will the world move on, forgetting a single journalist in the interests of Machiavellian gain? Or will there be an honest, vigorous investigation as this morality tale plays out across the globe?

Stay tuned.

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File photo by Victoria Espinoza

A dispute inside a Port Jefferson Station pool hall resulted in the shooting death of a 27-year-old man July 22.

Suffolk County Police Homicide detectives are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred inside Billiards DBM, located at 1604 Main Street in Port Jefferson Station at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday night, according to police.

Following an altercation, Albert Luis Lopez Rodriguez was shot inside the hall, police said. Rodriguez, 27, of Selden was pronounced dead at the scene by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner.

The investigation is ongoing. Detectives are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the Homicide Squad at 631-852-6392 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

File photo by Victoria Espinoza

Police have arrested a Huntington Station man for his alleged involvement in a March 31 shooting in Lindenhurst.

Hector Gonzalez, 27, of Huntington Station, an alleged Latin Kings gang member, was arrested May 15 and charged with allegedly murdering Herminio Torres, 25, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Attorney information for Gonzalez was not immediately available.

An altercation started inside and continued outside at 105 Grados, located at 105 Sunrise Highway, at approximately 3:20 a.m. During the fight, two men were shot and three men were stabbed.

“The district attorney’s office remains committed to eradicating dangerous street gangs from our communities and cracking down on senseless gun violence,” District Attorney Tim Sini (D) said. “We will do everything in our power to bring this individual, a self-proclaimed Latin Kings gang member, to justice.”

Torres, was transported by the Lindenhurst Fire Department to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where he was pronounced dead. The second shooting victim, 26, self-transported to an area hospital and was subsequently transported to another hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. A 23-year-old man was stabbed and transported to an area hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Two other men who were stabbed, ages 28 and 35, were transported to local hospitals where they were treated and released.

Anyone with information is asked to call Homicide Squad detectives at 631-852-6392 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS (8477).

Elvin Guzman, 21, was arrested April 27 and charged with stabbing to death of Dennis Miranda Leon on April 15, outside El Rio Restaurant in Centereach, Suffolk County police said. Mugshot from SCPD

Suffolk County Police today arrested a Centereach man for stabbing a man to death outside a Centereach restaurant earlier this month.

During an altercation with another man in the rear of El Rio Restaurant, located at 2133 Middle Country Road, Dennis Miranda Leon was stabbed multiple times on April 15 at about 12:10 a.m.

Miranda Leon, 20, of Centereach, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital where he died April 19.

Following an investigation, Elvin Guzman, 21, of Willow Street, was arrested on April 27 and charged with second-degree murder. Guzman is scheduled to be arraigned today at 1st District Court in Central Islip.

File photo

Suffolk County Police arrested a Dix Hills man for fatally shooting his girlfriend in Dix Hills Thursday night, April 14.

Police said Eric Bermudez confronted his girlfriend, Regina Flecha, on Burroughs Avenue, north of Kenmore Street, at approximately 7:30 p.m. and shot her multiple times. Bermudez then pulled Flecha into his vehicle and drove away from the scene. Two 3rd Precinct detectives observed Bermudez’s vehicle speeding on Fifth Avenue in Bay Shore and pulled over the vehicle when they discovered the victim. Bay Shore-Brightwaters Rescue Ambulance responded to the traffic stop and transported Flecha, 37 of Dix Hills, to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore where she died a short time later.

Homicide Squad detectives charged Bermudez, 36, of 10 Black Pine Court, with second-degree murder.

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File photo

Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating an incident in which a man and woman were found dead inside a hotel room at Commack Motor Inn, located at 2231 Jericho Turnpike in Commack at approximately 12:33 p.m.

An employee entered a room after the occupants, Omar Torres and Yesenia Abreu, failed to check out at their scheduled time, and discovered them dead inside. The investigation revealed the Torres, 31, of Glendale, killed Abreu, 29, of Glendale, and then shot himself. Abreu’s cause of death remains undetermined. Detectives are awaiting autopsy results from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner.

The investigation is ongoing.

This version was updated to include the names, now released from the SCPD, of the two people found dead at the Commack Motor Inn. 

Greenlawn Park was taped off Saturday morning after a dead body with lacerations was discovered at the end of August. File photo by Gabriella Espinoza

A man walking in Greenlawn Park Aug. 20, discovered a dead body with significant lacerations.

The man flagged down a passing motorist who called 911 at 7:11 a.m. and Second Precinct officers responded.

The body was transported to the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of death.

Police said Wednesday that the body was identified as 18-year-old Estiven Abrego Gomez, of Greenlawn,

Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the death. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the detectives at 631-852-6392 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

Dennis Cullen is charged with drowning his mother. Photo from SCPD

A 63-year-old woman was found dead in the back yard of her Lloyd Harbor home on Wednesday, Aug. 17.

Lloyd Harbor Police officers found Elizabeth Cullen’s body after they received a request to check on her welfare at her residence on White Hill Road. Once she was found dead, Lloyd Harbor Police contacted Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives to conduct an investigation.

While police forces were at the house, Denis D. Cullen Jr., the victim’s son, came home and police arrested him and charged him with second-degree murder.

No attorney information on the 23-year-old was immediately available.

Sarah Strobel was found dead in Suffolk County park in 2013

Fernando Romualdo mugshot from SCPD

A young woman’s alleged murderer has been arrested in Suffolk County, more than two years after police found her dead body in a nature preserve, shocking her community.

The Suffolk County Police Department announced on Thursday that they had charged 28-year-old Fernando Romualdo with second-degree murder in the case of Sarah Strobel, whose lifeless body was found in the Froehlich Farm Nature Preserve in October 2013.

Attorney information for the suspect, a Huntington Station resident, was not immediately available on the New York State court system’s online database.

Romualdo was incarcerated at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate Rome on an unrelated charge but is now being held without bail at the county jail in Riverhead. According to the New York State Department of Corrections’ inmate database, he was sentenced to three years for second-degree rape last year, with his earliest possible release date in March 2018.

The 23-year-old murder victim, herself a Huntington Station resident who lived just a few blocks away from the defendant, was discovered at the Huntington nature preserve, near West Rogues Path, shortly before 9 a.m. on Oct. 3, 2013. Police said that day that a person walking on a path in the park noticed the body of an adult female off to the side of the path and called police. Authorities later identified her as Strobel and deemed her death criminal in nature.

Above, a scene from a candlelight vigil where friends of 23-year-old Sarah Strobel gathered. Photo from Taylor Friedman
Above, a scene from a candlelight vigil where friends of 23-year-old Sarah Strobel gathered. Photo from Taylor Friedman

Shortly after she was found dead, a friend of Strobel’s said the walking path was a favorite hiking spot of the victim’s. That friend, Taylor Friedman, helped organize a candlelight vigil to pay tribute to the young woman, a 2008 Walt Whitman High School graduate in the South Huntington school district.

“Sarah was a free spirit and a wise soul,” Friedman said at the time. “She lived her life to the fullest and made the best of any situation whether it was bad or good.”

Strobel was also honored in July 2015, when Huntington Station residents came together to honor several youths who had been killed over the last few years and dedicated both trees and a memorial stone to those victims at Depot Road Park.

In addition to Strobel, the community remembered the lives of 18-year-old Maggie Rosales, who was found stabbed to death, lying on Lynch Street in October 2014, and 25-year-old Danny Carbajal, who was shot in the head outside his home in July 2014. While a Huntington Station man has been prosecuted for Rosales’ murder, Carbajal’s death remains unsolved.

The deaths spurred community efforts to make Huntington Station a safer place.

Friends, family and town officials gather to remember Maggie Rosales, Danny Carbajal and Sarah Strobel in Huntington Station on Thursday. Three trees were planted in their honor. Photo by Mary Beth Steenson Kraese
Friends, family and town officials gather to remember Maggie Rosales, Danny Carbajal and Sarah Strobel in Huntington Station on Thursday. Three trees were planted in their honor. Photo by Mary Beth Steenson Kraese

Samuel White mugshot from SCPD

Detectives have charged a man with first-degree manslaughter after his alleged victim was found unconscious and covered in blood.

The Suffolk County Police Department said early Thursday morning that 32-year-old Brentwood resident Samuel White was arrested for allegedly murdering Edwin Rivera, who was found lying on Clinton Avenue in Huntington the previous day.

A 911 caller had reported the body, and officers found the 39-year-old from Bay Shore on the ground next to his 2015 Mercedes. He was pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital.

Police had said Wednesday that the death had been ruled criminal and detectives were waiting on an autopsy from the county medical examiner’s office to determine how he died.

No attorney information was available for the murder suspect, White, on the New York State court system’s online database.

Rivera’s was the second body found in the Huntington area this week. Just a few days earlier, officers had found the body of 33-year-old William Sarcenolima, of Huntington Station, partially in the roadway on West Hills Road. He too was pronounced dead at Huntington Hospital and his body was transported to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy. Police have not yet announced a cause of death, but said at the time the body was found that Sarcenolima may have been a victim of violence.

Anyone with information is asked to call Homicide Squad detectives at 631-852-6392 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.