2026.4.9 Queens arsonist sipped stolen beer and watched as 4 died in fire, including toddler: DA
The accused Queens arsonist arrested for killing four strangers, including a 3-year-old girl, set the fire randomly to get out his anger over being fired that day — and then sat on the curb and sipped a stolen beer as he watched panicked victims jumping out windows, prosecutors said Thursday.
One of Roman Amatitla’s victims died not from smoke or burns but from blunt-force injuries he suffered when he jumped from the burning building targeted at random on Avery Ave. near College Point Blvd. in Flushing in a desperate attempt to escape, prosecutors said.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz called the deadly arson “an act of mass murder” and “one of the greatest crimes that this borough has seen in a very long time.”
Amatitla was furious over losing his job in the food industry when he wandered into the building, which he has no known ties to, on March 16. He set a piece of paper on fire and dropped it onto a pile of rubbish atop a garbage can by the base of the front stairs.
“He said he had to get his rage out on someone or something,” Queens Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Reale said at Amatitla’s arraignment Thursday.
After allegedly setting the fire, he watched it spread, then stepped outside and watched as residents raced out. He sat on the curb, drinking a stolen beer, as the inferno raged and victims fought for their lives, prosecutors say.
He even watched as the mother of 3-year-old Sihan Yang scream in anguish after being told her daughter died in the fire, Reale said.
More than a dozen squatters were living in the building at the time of the fire, authorities believe.
In addition to the toddler, Chengri Cui, a 49-year-old man, and Chie Shin Ming, a 61-year-old woman, died at the scene from smoke inhalation.
Hong Zhao, 64, was rushed to a local hospital, where he died of blunt-force trauma after jumping from the building.
Amatitla was seen repeatedly entering and leaving the building before setting the blaze, even urinating in front of it, according to prosecutors.
Cops arrested Amatitla on Wednesday, charging him with multiple counts of murder, assault and arson. He was also charged with petty larceny for swiping the beer from a nearby BP gas station.
When he stepped into the gas station convenience store before setting the fire, he bought one beer and swiped another without paying, Reale said. He also asked for a lighter but when told he’d have to pay for it asked for a book of matches, which was free.
He motive for setting the fire was “based on rage,” Reale said.
When he ignited the blaze, he heard residents upstairs but went ahead anyway, prosecutors said.
“(He said) that when he was lighting the fire that he had been in a fight at work and that he knew lighting the fire was going to cause harm to someone, but he did it because he needed to get the anger out,” court papers say.
After cops took him into custody, Amatitla, who lives in Maspeth, admitted he had entered the building but claimed he didn’t set it ablaze. He ultimately made statements implicating himself in the crime, prosecutors said.
Before his arrest, Amatitla, who has ties to Mexico, fled to Connecticut for a short time. He was arrested on his return home, cops said.
Judge Thomas Wright-Fernandez ordered Amatitla held without bail. Dressed in a turquoise hoodie and slides, Amatitla said nothing as prosecutors outlined their case.
“What led up to the fire is really quite disturbing,” Katz said at a press conference after the arraignment. “We alleged that he put a piece of paper that was on fire into a garbage, and just let it burn. And he intentionally let it burn. And four people were killed.”
Seven surviving residents — three women and four men, ranging in age from 33 to 67 — were treated for a host of injuries.
Along with Zhao, four other residents were captured on video leaping from windows to escape the flames.
One man who jumped was hospitalized with a traumatic brain injury and severe burns. Another resident who jumped from a third-floor window was hospitalized with broken ribs and severe pain to their foot. They were still having trouble walking several weeks later, according to court documents.
As an FDNY lieutenant and firefighter entered the home to make rescues, the staircase collapsed and the pair fell to the basement. They were taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where they were treated for burns and smoke inhalation, court records show.
Katz said that Amititla lost a job “in the food processing industry” before he decided to set the fire.
It remains unclear why the suspect targeted that particular building.
“As far as we can tell, right now, there’s no connection to the individuals at the location. However, it is part of our investigation to look into why that location,” Katz said.
“All we know is that we have proof that he walked into that house, set it on fire, and watched as it burned, drinking some beers.”
The suspect’s lawyer asked the judge and public to remember that “a charge is not a conviction.”
“We intend to vigorously represent him,” defense attorney Vivian Cedeno said after the bail hearing. “I would ask that we let the legal system play out because right now he is presumed innocent.”
On the day of the fire, horrified neighbors saw flames shooting out windows as terrified residents leapt from the building.
“Something blew up,” Wadud Mohammad told the Daily News shortly after the fire. Mohammad, 59, works at a local gas station. “The whole roof was on fire. People were jumping from the building. Others were running across the street.”
Before the blaze, the city Department of Buildings slapped a partial vacate order on the address because the owner had subdivided the second and third floors into multiple dwellings, officials said.
Neighbors said that the building had long been poorly maintained.
“That building is chaos,” said the 30-year-old worker, who would only identify himself as Eric. “The door is always open, like anyone can just walk in. No one was taking care of that house.”
Department of Buildings records indicate an inspection of the Avery Ave. address in 2020 revealed the owner improperly converted the two-family building into a seven-family building “by creating five additional single-room occupancies and nine additional bedrooms.”
Inspectors found the rooms “with key-locking devices, bed, TV, cooking equipment, refrigerators and food items in rooms,” before the partial vacate order was put in place, city records show.
2026.4.9 ‘Ketamine Queen’ sentenced in Matthew Perry case, highlighting a new era of accountability for drug dealers
Los Angeles — “I’m really select with people … red carpet motherfuckers.”
For years, Jasveen Sangha, dubbed the “Ketamine Queen,” ran what prosecutors say in a sentencing memo was a “high volume drug trafficking business out of her North Hollywood residence.” She marketed herself, prosecutors say, as a dealer who sold exclusively to A-list clientele.
Now, Sangha will trade her jet-set lifestyle for prison scrubs after she was sentenced Wednesday to serve 15 years in federal prison.
Her previous lifestyle had its benefits. Prosecutors said Sangha had a privileged background yet chose to deal drugs “not because of financial deprivation, but for greed, glamor and access.”
That all changed on October 28, 2023, when “Friends” star Matthew Perry was found floating face down in his hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home.
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office listed the cause of death as “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning.
Sangha and four others were charged in August 2024 in connection with Perry’s death.
A year later, Sangha agreed to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including providing the ketamine that led to Perry’s death. Her plea follows the path of the other four defendants who struck agreements with federal prosecutors.
‘We will hold drug-dealers accountable’
Shortly after Sangha’s indictment, then-US Attorney for the Central District of California, E. Martin Estrada, told reporters, “Defendants nowadays are on full notice that the products they sell could result in the death of another person. Therefore, if you’re in the drug business and despite these risks, you continue in the drug business, you are pushed by greed to gamble with other people’s lives, be advised, we will hold you accountable.”
Perry’s case draws parallels to the drug-related death of Mac Miller in September of 2018. The rapper died after an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine and ethanol.
Major league pitcher Tyler Skaggs died with high levels of opioids in his system in 2019. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in 2014 with a syringe in his arm and a lethal combination of heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine in his system.
In each of these celebrity deaths, those who were alleged to have supplied illegal substances were arrested. Not all of them were convicted.
Legal experts say the emphasis on higher-profile cases and related prosecutions can play a crucial role in deterring illegal drug activities.
“The emphasis on high-profile cases largely stems from the visibility they bring to the issue, helping to shed light on the broader implications of the drug crisis,” Andrew Pickett, a lead trial attorney based in Melbourne, Florida, told CNN in August 2024.
“They serve as a warning to both practitioners operating on the fringes of legality and those facilitating substance abuse,” Pickett said.
The rise of drug-related deaths has forced law enforcement and prosecutors around the country to adjust tactics by dedicating more personnel to aggressively target traffickers and dealers.
Even the death of a customer is not always a deterrent for a drug dealer to halt their illicit business practices. CNN’s Josh Campbell met up with an undercover officer to discuss the issue in 2022. Asked why dealers would aggressively sell a product with a high potential to kill their customers, the LAPD detective said that is not a paramount issue for cartels and those selling fentanyl to teens.
“It all comes down to money, it all comes down to profit,” he said. “The dealer’s main objective is to get you hooked, and if you don’t die from it, then you’re a customer for as long as you live.
That appears to have been the case with Perry.
Estrada, the federal prosecutor, mentioned Perry’s battles with addiction, which have been well documented for years. The actor published a memoir less than a year before his death describing his decades-long struggles.
“The investigation revealed that in the fall of 2023, Mr. Perry fell back into addiction and these defendants took advantage to profit for themselves,” Estrada said in 2024.
“He would think of (drug dealers) as sometimes his best friends, sometimes his worst enemies,” Perry’s stepfather, Keith Morrison, said in court.
Accountability is not reserved solely for high profile deaths
While investigating Perry’s death, the US Attorney’s Office said they uncovered an underground network of doctors and drug suppliers they claim were responsible for distributing the ketamine.
The 2019 overdose death of aspiring personal trainer Cody McLaury was found to have a haunting connection to Perry. Though the two men did not know each other, prosecutors say Sangha was a common connection.
When her brother died, Kimberly McLaury texted the person who she believes sold him the drug that killed him: Jasveen Sangha.
After receiving her brother’s phone back from police, Kimberly McLaury found a text chat with the alleged dealer, indicating her brother paid for the ketamine through Venmo.
“After his death certificate came out, I texted back and said ‘just so you know the ketamine that you sold my brother was listed as his cause of death,’” she told CNN.
Kimberly McLaury never heard back. “I just assumed that she didn’t care,” she said.
Kimberly McLaury spoke directly to Sangha in court Wednesday.
“You didn’t feel bad when my brother died … the loss of human life didn’t stop you,” she said.
Sangha was not charged with Cody McLaury’s death, but prosecutors asked the judge to take her role in his death into account in their sentencing.
“Unfortunately, just like Mr. McLaury’s death, Mr. Perry’s death did not alter defendant’s illegal conduct,” prosecutors said.
A federal judge decided the ‘Queen’s’ fate
Roughly two and a half years after Perry’s tragic death, Sangha learned her fate Wednesday.
Her attorneys, Mark Geragos and Alexandra Kazarian, argued in the sentencing memorandum that their client has accepted responsibility for her “serious” criminal conduct.
“She has been detained since August 15, 2024, and has used that time wisely and productively, participating in programming, and supporting others in recovery,” the attorneys wrote.
They said Sangha “is known as a compassionate, selfless, and reliable person who shows up for others in meaningful ways” and asked the judge to impose a sentence of time served, followed by appropriate conditions of supervised release.
Federal prosecutors, however, argued the punishment should be more severe. The judge agreed with their recommendation to sentence Sangha to 180 months in prison. After the hearing, Geragos said he was “bitterly disappointed” with the sentence.
“There’s no way that Jasveen is five times more culpable than the person who injected Matthew Perry with the drug or the doctor who got the drug,” Geragos said.
“She chose profits over people, and her actions have caused immense pain to the victims’ families and loved ones,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum.
“(Sangha) had the opportunity to stop after realizing the impact of her dealing – but simply chose not to.”
Morrison described his stepson to the court as “funny, brilliant, with lots of ghosts,” he said. “He was generous, kind, infuriating and fabulous.”
To Sangha, who looked emotional listening to his words, Morrison said, “I feel bad for you. I don’t hate you … The law is the law and it’s very clear.”
A burglar suspect allegedly posed as a college student to get into a dormitory where she spent three nights robbing students, according to police.
Carissa Gunter, 19, gained access to the University of Cincinnati’s Daniels Hall in December, just after the fall semester ended, by pretending to be a student, UC’s public information officer Kelly Cantwell told WXIX.
Gunter, of Mason, Ohio, then spent three nights in Room 105, during which she stole students’ items, including an Acer laptop, headphones, a USB with games, and pairs of Nikes and Uggs, according to an affidavit.
Gunter was arrested and charged with four counts of burglary this week after a months-long investigation, police said.
She is being held on a $10,000 bond.
At full capacity, Daniels Hall houses 775 students on 12 floors, according to UC’s website, which describes the dormitory as having “a welcoming and very social atmosphere” where students “will see doors open for visitors and smiling faces.”
The Cincinnati Police Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for additional information.
2026.4.9 Fearless NJ mom and daughter cling to jewelry thief as crew of bandits speeds away: video
A badass mom and daughter duo fearlessly tried to fight off a crew of jewelry thieves — clinging to one of the robbers to stop him from speeding off with loot from their store, a wild video shows.
The gutsy gals, who own SD Jewelry in Perth Amboy, are shown in dramatic footage chasing down four bling bandits who used sledgehammers to smash through a window of their family-run shop Wednesday.
The unidentified pair then grabbed one of the masked crooks as he hopped into a stolen BMW with a bag of jewelry, according to ABC 7.
The tough-as-nails daughter kept hanging on to the crook’s clothing — even as the crew peeled off with an estimated $1 million in valuables, the station reported.
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“She fought with them like a man. She’s a brave woman,” Jessie Sanchez, who owns a salon across the street, said of the daughter. “Her mother fell away. She fell. It was too much.”
The mom tumbled to the ground as she wrestled with the robber, and suffered bruises on her arms and legs, the outlet reported.
Stunning footage also shows the smash-and-grab crew bashing their way through the window of the shop in broad daylight— then stuffing jewelry into black trash bags before bolting.
The store owners told the station they were fighting for their livelihood because they could not afford insurance for the shop.
The four suspects in the heist were at large on Thursday, and the Perth Amboy Police Department is now investigating.
2026.4.9 Suspect who killed California deputy run over by armored vehicle after hours-long firefight standoff: sheriff
‘Don’t shoot at cops. You shoot at cops, we’re going to run you over. He got run over. He got what he deserved’
A California sheriff’s detective was shot and killed Thursday while serving an eviction notice after an armed suspect opened fire on deputies in what authorities described as an apparent ambush that led to an hours-long standoff.
The suspect, identified as David Eric Morales, was ultimately killed when a law enforcement BearCat armored vehicle ran over him after he continued firing and refused to surrender, authorities said.
“The suspect was lying prone on the ground, in camouflage clothing, continuing to pose a threat,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said later during a news conference. “The situation was resolved, and the suspect is now dead. He was not shot. One of the BearCats ran over him and killed him.”
Boudreaux said the shooting happened around 10:40 a.m. in Porterville, where deputies encountered Morales, who allegedly fired at them with a high-powered rifle.
Authorities said Morales remained barricaded in his home for hours after the shooting, firing repeatedly as deputies and assisting agencies worked to contain the scene.
Boudreaux said Morales eventually exited the home through a window and was later found outside, lying in brush while wearing camouflage and continuing to pose a threat.
The detective, identified by Boudreaux as Deputy Randy Hoppert, was struck by gunfire and transported to Sierra View District Hospital, where he died at 11:57 a.m.
Hoppert was a Navy corpsman who served from 2010 to 2015 and joined the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 5, 2020, Boudreaux said.
“This situation went from a civil order of removal to where our officer was shot and killed. This is senseless,” Boudreaux said.
Authorities considered airlifting the Hoppert to Fresno, but his condition was too unstable for transport.
Boudreaux said Morales had not paid rent for 35 days, and deputies were serving a final eviction notice when the shooting occurred.
The sheriff said Morales appeared to have been waiting for deputies and “laid in wait” before opening fire, prompting a call for additional units.
Boudreaux described the outcome in blunt terms.
“Don’t shoot at cops. You shoot at cops, we’re going to run you over. He got run over. He got what he deserved,” the sheriff said.
He added that the suspect had “chosen this ending.”
The sheriff also told reporters he spent time with Hoppert’s wife and mother earlier this afternoon.
“I sat down at the hospital and met with the wife and his mom, and I can tell you there is no consoling that family at this point,” Boudreaux said. “Attacks on law enforcement of this nature must stop.”
During the standoff, Morales allegedly fired at law enforcement vehicles and equipment, including a drone that was shot out of the air, while multiple tactical vehicles took gunfire, according to Boudreaux.
Law enforcement agencies across the region responded to assist, and an escort was being organized to accompany Hoppert’s body from the hospital to the coroner’s office, Boudreaux said.
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2026.4.8 2 key reasons why Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann flipped and confessed to vicious murders
Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s lawyer revealed the two key reasons why he suddenly flipped and fessed up to viciously killing eight sex workers after years of maintaining his innocence.
The hulking Massapequa Park architect’s defense attorney, Michael J. Brown, claimed his client finally decided to cop to the savage killings that have rocked Long Island for three decades to shield the victims’ families and his own from hearing the grisly details of his cold-blooded slayings at trial.
“He certainly wanted to save the families of the victims the ordeal of going to trial, coupled with saving his family that ordeal — it was definitely a factor,” Brown told reporters Wednesday at Suffolk County court.
Brown added that the twisted killer’s decision also came after two devastating rulings by Judge Timothy Mazzei — allowing all DNA evidence to be used and refusing to sever the charges into separate trials.
He called the evidence “overwhelming.”
Heuermann, 62, admitted Wednesday that he strangled and dismembered eight women, then dumped their bodies along barren stretches of Long Island near Gilgo Beach between 1993 and 2010.
The sadistic married father of two pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for slaughtering Amber Lynn Costello, 27; Megan Waterman, 22; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Valerie Mack, 24; Jessica Taylor, 20; and Sandra Costilla, 28.
He also confessed to killing Karen Vergata, 34, whose 1996 murder had not previously been linked to him.
Part of Heuermann’s plea deal includes working with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit to assist in other serial killer cases, helping investigators understand what drives his disturbed mind, Brown said.
The guilty plea could also spare his wife and daughter, Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, from potential liability in pending and expected civil lawsuits filed by the victims’ families.
He will be sentenced on June 17 to three life terms without the chance of parole.
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2026.4.9 The decades-spanning timeline of the Gilgo Beach killings and the case against Rex Heuermann
For more than a decade, a string of unsolved killings on Long Island, New York, known as the Gilgo Beach murders confounded investigators.
The investigation began in earnest with the 2010 disappearance of 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert. The search for her whereabouts led to the discovery of at least 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway and launched the hunt for a suspected serial killer.
But the investigation went cold for over a decade. In the meantime, the killings were the subject of a bestselling nonfiction book, a Netflix movie and true-crime documentaries.
Authorities announced a major breakthrough in the case in July 2023 when they charged New York architect Rex Heuermann with murder in the killings of three of the four women who became known as the “Gilgo Four.” Heuermann was later charged with four more murders – including the death of the fourth Gilgo Four victim – in incidents dating as far back as 1993.
Two forensic laboratories have determined that hairs recovered on six of the seven victims are “forensically tied” to Heuermann or members of his immediate family, or others he lived with, according to a legal filing.
He initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his attorneys tried to limit the evidence against him.
But on April 8, 2026, Heuermann stood before a packed Suffolk County courtroom and admitted to his spree of violence. In all, Heuermann confessed he fatally strangled eight women and discarded their remains: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Sandra Costilla and Karen Vergata.
Here’s a timeline of the Gilgo Beach killings, how the investigation unfolded and what ultimately led to Heuermann’s arrest and guilty plea.
Young women missing on Long Island
Over nearly two decades, a number of women in their 20s who police said worked as escorts or sex workers went missing on Long Island.
Costilla’s remains were found in the hamlet of North Sea in 1993 by two hunters in the woods, according to court documents.
Vergata, a 34-year-old escort from Manhattan, went missing in February 1996. Her partial remains were found on Fire Island in April 1996, with further remains found along Ocean Parkway during the Gilgo Beach investigation in 2011. The then-unidentified remains were dubbed “Fire Island Jane Doe.”
The partial remains of Mack, a 24-year-old Philadelphia mother who worked as an escort, were found in a wooded area of Manorville in November 2000, with further remains discovered in 2011, according to police.
Taylor’s remains were discovered in part in Manorville in 2003, with more found along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach in 2011, according to police.
Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she was last seen on July 9, 2007.
Barthelemy, a 24-year-old sex worker, was last seen on July 12, 2009, in the Bronx, according to Suffolk County police.
After Barthelemy’s disappearance, her family received multiple taunting calls from her cell phone, according to an attorney for her mother.
“Do you think you’ll ever see her again?” the unidentified male caller asked Barthelemy’s sister on August 26, 2009. “You won’t. I killed her,” the man added.
Waterman was 22 years old and working as a sex worker when she was last seen on June 6, 2010, police said.
Costello was 27 years old and living on Long Island when she was last seen on September 2, 2010. She struggled with a heroin addiction and worked as an escort to help support her habit, according to Suffolk County police.
Authorities find remains of ‘Gilgo Four’
In May 2010, Shannan Gilbert went missing in the community of Oak Beach after visiting a client, and her mother began a tireless quest to pressure police to search for her and take her case seriously.
While searching for Gilbert, police discovered Barthelemy’s remains on December 11, 2010, in bushes along an isolated strip of waterfront property in Gilgo Beach, according to Suffolk County officials.
Two days later, investigators discovered the remains of three additional victims – Brainard-Barnes, Costello and Waterman – strewn across a half-mile stretch in Gilgo Beach. They became known as the Gilgo Four.
The four women, whose remains were found wrapped in camouflaged burlap, worked as escorts who advertised on Craigslist and were last seen between July 2007 and September 2010, officials said.
7 more bodies found nearby
On March 29, 2011, the partial skeletal remains of another woman were found several miles east of where the bodies of the Gilgo Four were discovered. The woman was first known as Jane Doe #5 before investigators identified her as Taylor, police said.
On April 4, 2011, three more sets of remains were found on a stretch of Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County near the beach. They included a female toddler, an unidentified Asian male and an unidentified Jane Doe #6, investigators said.
One week later, two additional sets of human remains were found in Nassau County.
One set of remains was identified through DNA analysis as the mother of the female toddler. The mother’s partial remains were first discovered in 1997, officials said. The killings of the toddler and mother were later connected to another case, according to Nassau County prosecutors.
The other set of remains “genetically matched” with remains found in 1996 on Fire Island, “significantly expanding the timeline and geographic reach” of the investigation, officials said.
In December 2011, Gilbert’s body was found in the wooded marshes of Oak Beach.
Authorities later said they believed Gilbert’s death may have been accidental and not related to the Gilgo Beach slayings.
The Gilgo Beach case then went cold for over a decade.
Decade later, new task force picks up pieces
In 2015, then-Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke was arrested and accused of beating a man in custody and conspiring to block the FBI investigation into his actions, according to court records. Burke ultimately pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation and conspiracy to obstruct justice and was sentenced to 46 months in prison, the records show.
The day of the arrest, the Suffolk County Police Deputy Commissioner announced that the FBI will join the investigation into the Gilgo Beach case.
In January 2020, Suffolk County police released photos of what it said could be a significant piece of evidence: a black leather belt embossed with the letters “WH” or “HM.” The department also launched a website to collect new tips in the investigation.
“We believe the belt was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims,” then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart told reporters at the time.
On May 28, 2020, Suffolk County Police Department identified “Jane Doe #6” as Valerie Mack, who went missing two decades earlier.
In February 2022, then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison formed a multiagency task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings. The task force included the Suffolk County Police Department, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police and the FBI.
On March 14, 2022, Rex Heuermann was first mentioned as a possible suspect in the Gilgo Beach killings after a New York state investigator identified him in a database, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.
Investigators started surveilling him and his family and took pieces of garbage to obtain DNA samples.
As they closed in on Heuermann, investigators used cell tower records from thousands of possible individuals to narrow it down to hundreds and then to a handful of people. Next, authorities focused on residents who also matched a physical description provided by a witness who had seen the suspected killer.
Authorities zeroed in on anyone with a connection to a green pickup truck a witness had seen the suspect driving, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case. Later, authorities learned Heuermann drove a green pickup truck registered to his brother, CNN reported.
Heuermann matched a witness’s physical description, lived close to the Long Island cell site and worked near the New York City cell sites where other calls were captured.
Personal cell phone and credit card billing records revealed numerous instances where Heuermann was in the general locations as burner phones, which authorities say he had with him at the killings. He used the phones to call three of the Gilgo Four victims and also used “Brainard-Barnes and Barthelemy’s cellphones when they were used to check voicemail and make taunting phone calls after the women disappeared,” Suffolk County prosecutors allege.
Authorities said a search of Heuermann’s computer revealed he had scoured the internet at least 200 times for details about the status of the investigation, Tierney said. Heuermann was also compulsively searching for photos of the victims and their relatives, and he was trying to track down relatives, the district attorney said.
In January 2023, investigators got a complete sample of Heuermann’s DNA from leftover crust in a pizza box he threw in the trash, a law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN.
During the initial examination of one of the victims’ skeletal remains and materials discovered in the grave, the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory recovered a male hair from the “bottom of the burlap” the killer used to wrap Waterman’s body, according to prosecutors. Analysis of the DNA found on the victim and the pizza thrown out by Heuermann showed the samples matched.
Additionally, hair believed to be from Heuermann’s wife was found on or near three of the murder victims, prosecutors allege in the bail application, citing DNA testing. The DNA came from 11 bottles inside a garbage can outside the Heuermann home, the court document says.
Rex Heuermann arrested in murders
On July 13, 2023, Heuermann, then 59, was arrested in New York City and charged with the murders of three of the Gilgo Four victims: Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, according to an indictment.
In court, he pleaded not guilty to the murders and was remanded without bail.
Heuermann has owned the New York City-based architecture and consulting firm RH Consultants & Associates since 1994, according to his company’s website.
The case against Heuermann came together over two years with the restart of the investigation, in which investigators used “the power of the grand jury,” including more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants, to collect evidence and tie Heuermann conclusively to the killings, Tierney said during a news conference.
4 more murder charges for other women
In August 2023, the murder victim known as “Fire Island Jane Doe” was identified as Vergata.
In January 2024, Heuermann was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Brainard-Barnes, the fourth of the Gilgo Four, according to an indictment.
Heuermann was indicted on two new murder charges in June 2024 in connection with the 2003 death of Taylor and the 1993 death of Costilla.
A hair found underneath Taylor’s remains was linked to Heuermann, according to a bail application.
“Defendant Heuermann is the individual who murdered, stripped, restrained, and transported the remains of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, as well as the Gilgo Four, until they were each discovered in 1993, 2003, 2010, and 2011,” according to the bail application.
In a June 6, 2024, court hearing, prosecutors said investigators found disturbing content on Heuermann’s devices, including a planning document outlining a strategy for future killings.
In September 2024, Tierney announced prosecutors were seeking the public’s help in identifying a separate victim found in 2011 along the same stretch of Ocean Parkway as Waterman and Taylor. The victim, referred to as “Asian Doe,” was a biological male of Asian descent, between the ages of 17 and 23, found wearing women’s clothing. Authorities said they believe the victim died in 2006 or earlier from blunt force trauma.
Tierney did not say whether the victim was connected to the investigation into Heuermann.
In December 2024, Heuermann was charged with the murder of Mack – his seventh murder charge.
A long-awaited guilty plea
On September 3, 2025, Suffolk County Judge Timothy Mazzei ruled that evidence derived from cutting-edge DNA technology would be admissible at Heuermann’s trial. Prosecutors say the evidence, known as whole genome sequencing, connects Heuermann to the killings.
Heuermann’s defense attorney Michael J. Brown had argued whole genome sequencing has not yet been widely accepted by the scientific community and therefore shouldn’t be permitted. He said he planned to argue the validity of the technology before a jury.
Later that month, Mazzei ruled that the seven murder charges would be handled in one trial rather than separated into individual cases. Heuermann’s attorneys had argued that the killings should be separated because they involved different time frames, techniques and locations, while prosecutors said they featured overlapping evidence and witnesses.
On March 26, 2026, the Associated Press reported Heuermann intended to plead guilty to the charges at a coming hearing.
On April 8, Heuermann stood in court for a hearing decades in the making. In a calm tone, he pleaded guilty to seven murders and admitted he killed an eighth woman, Vergata.
He said he fatally strangled the women and discarded their remains on Long Island, and he confirmed he dismembered some and bound them with burlap wraps.
Heuermann is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole at a hearing June 17. Brown said he expects his client to speak at that sentencing hearing.
Law enforcement officials and victims’ families praised the guilty plea and the work it took to finally get there.
“This has been a long journey of hope – hope that one day we would stand here and say her name with justice beside it,” Melissa Cann, the sister of Brainard-Barnes, said afterward. “Today, that long, painful journey brings us to this moment – our mission, our promise to Maureen is finally met with accountability.”
2026.4.8 Smirking Gilgo serial killer reveals how he murdered 8 victims as their horrified relatives gasp in court during guilty plea
The hulking Manhattan architect who led a double life as the so-called Gilgo Beach killer admitted Wednesday to strangling and dismembering eight sex workers — bringing long-awaited closure in a case that has haunted Long Island for decades.
Rex Heuermann, the 6-foot-4 schlub from Massapequa Park, smirked as he repeatedly muttered “strangulation” while answering how he murdered each of his victims — prompting gasps from the victims’ families and tears from his daughter in the packed Riverhead courtroom.
He pleaded guilty to butchering Amber Lynn Costello, 27; Megan Waterman, 22; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who were famously known as the “Gilgo Four” — as well as Valerie Mack, 24; Jessica Taylor, 20; and Sandra Costilla, 28, the first victim killed in 1993.
The father of two also copped to killing Karen Vergata, 34, whose 1996 murder had not previously been linked to him.
Heuermann, 62, also confessed that he dismembered some of the women and tied them up in burlap, bringing his daughter, Victoria, to tears inside the Riverhead courtroom.
Long Island’s most notorious serial killer appeared calm and even glib as he rattled off the horrors — at times appearing to hold back a smirk in the courtroom.
“He will serve three consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole,” prosecutors said.
The gruesome confession brings an end to a heartbreaking saga that has haunted Long Island for three decades.
Heuermann was arrested in 2023 after a then 13-year cold case was reinvigorated by Suffolk County Police Commissioner and former NYPD Chief Rodney Harrison.
Investigators found that he kept meticulous notes of his slayings in a secret, typo-ridden document on his computer, with chilling reminders like, “remove head and hands” and “wash body inside and all cavities.”
Heuermann lawyer Michael Brown said his client’s decision to finally admit to the murders came after two devastating rulings by Judge Timothy Mazzei — allowing all of the DNA evidence to be used and refusing to try the crimes separately at trial.
He called the evidence “overwhelming.”
Brown also claimed Heuermann all of a sudden wanted to spare all the families details of his gruesome crimes at a trial.
“He certainly wanted to save the families of the victims the ordeal of going to trial, and coupled with saving his family that ordeal — it was definitely a factor,” Brown told reporters.
The guilty plea could also help his wife and daughter, Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, from liability in pending and expected civil lawsuits filed by his victims’ families.
In addition, Brown said the killer agreed to work with the FBI on other serial killer cases.
Heuermann, who was arrested in 2023, will be sentenced on June 17.
“You know, the regular guy who goes to work, has kids in the local school and in a good neighborhood, but he’s killing people on the side,” a neighbor told NBC News about Heuermann in 2023.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office on Wednesday released stomach-turning details of each of the killings, which show the Massapequa Park monster struck every few years.
The first murder was in November 1993, when Heuermann picked up Costilla, strangled her and dumped her body near Fish Cove Road in Southampton, where she was discovered by hunters just days later.
He struck again in April 1996, when he arranged to meet Vergata, strangled her, then cut up and scattered her remains.
Vergata’s legs were found on Blue Point Beach later that month, but her skull wasn’t discovered until April 12, 2011, on Ocean Parkway, not far from the Gilgo Beach victims.
The 34-year-old mom was only identified as Jane Doe No. 7 until a DNA test revealed her true name in 2023.
Heuermann’s next victim was Mack, who disappeared between September and November 2000. Prosecutors said the killer dismembered her body and dumped the remains on Gilgo Beach and in a wooded area in Manorville.
Her body was found during a police search of Gilgo in 2011.
In July 2003, the architect strangled Taylor, again dismembering the body and using the same two dump sites on Gilgo Beach and in Manorville, where she was found in 2011.
Heuermann used a burner phone to arrange a rendezvous with the next victim, Brianard-Barnes, in July 2007. Prosecutors said the body was “secured” with three belts and left on Gilgo Beach, where she was found in December 2010.
In July 2009, he used another burner phone to arrange a date with Barthelemy, strangling her to death, wrapping her body with tape and burlap, and dumping her on Gilgo Beach.
Her remains were found during the 2010 search of the beach.
Waterman became the seventh victim in June 2010, when Heuermann picked her up at a Hauppauge Holiday Inn, killed her, and left her on Gilgo Beach taped up in burlap.
Waterman’s body was found six months later.
Costello was the serial killer’s last victim. He picked her up in West Babylon in September 2010, later leaving the body also wrapped and tape and burlap on Gilgo Beach, where she was found on the north side of Ocean Parkway that December, prosecutors said.
Heuermann pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for Waterman, Costello, Barthelemy and Vergata, and second-degree murder for Brainard-Barnes, Taylor, Mack and Costilla.
Brown said he was not involved in two other Gilgo Beach slayings — Shannon Gilbert, a sex worker who disappeared in 2010, and an unidentified victim known only as “Asian Doe.”
The slayings remained a chilling mystery until 2022, when Suffolk County cops reopened the case and busted Heuermann outside his Manhattan office the following year.
Clever police work and cutting-edge DNA evidence helped take down the ogre-like, alleged serial killer, whose arrest has spawned real-crime documentaries and led to unprecedented media attention.
Suffolk investigators even scraped DNA from a used pizza box Heuermann tossed into a Big Apple trash can to help crack the cold case.
Since his arrest, sickening details have emerged.
Prosecutors said he killed all of the women in the basement of his home, which appears to be in squalid conditions compared to other houses in the pristine Nassau neighborhood.
His family — including his longtime wife — has claimed they had no idea what Heuermann was allegedly doing in his spare time.
He also kept a Tinder account and buzzed prostitutes on burner phones more than 500 times, prosecutors revealed in March. Heuermann made “significant searches for pornography related to bindings, torture, rape, snuff videos, crying, bruised and impaled women and/or girls,” according to prosecutors.
Heuermann had long maintained his innocence as his defense team tried to contest DNA evidence and point to other potential suspects.
But his fight for freedom ended on Wednesday.
Though a source pointed out to The Post, “The end to this is he dies in prison.”
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2026.4.8 State mental health worker and her ex-con boyfriend pimped out child in NY sex trafficking scheme, prosecutors says
A New York state government employee and her ex-con boyfriend were indicted Tuesday for running a sex trafficking and prostitution ring where they pimped out at least one child, prosecutors said.
Deanna DiCastro, 39, and Gillam Cordero, 38, are both accused of managing the sex ring out of four locations across the state — Manhattan, the Bronx, Rome and Utica — between October 2025 and January 2026, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
The alleged pimps, who have been dating for four years, arranged prostitution hookups at hotels in Manhattan and the Bronx, the DA’s office said.
When they trekked upstate, they used the Rome home of DiCastro — a state Office of Mental Health worker — as the meeting place, prosecutors said.
The pair pimped out at least one underage girl and dispatched various men to her hotel room at some point during the three-month operation, according to prosecutors.
They also instructed the young girl to take certain amounts of money from the purported clients, the office claimed.
DiCastro and Cordero allegedly started advertising for the illicit service in early October through listings on MegaPersonals, a website for “classified hookups.”
In November, Cordero also allegedly robbed someone at gunpoint at DiCastro’s direction — tracking them down and threatening to shoot them if they didn’t fork over their belongings, the DA’s office said.
DiCastro has a firearm license and 10 pistols registered in her name, the DA’s office said. But Cordero, as a convicted felon, is not legally permitted to own or purchase a firearm.
Cordero previously served time for a gunpoint robbery where he and two other members of the Mac Ballers gang forced a victim to strip naked before making off with their possessions, AMNY reported.
He only just secured parole in September, according to the outlet.
The lovers were both charged with sex trafficking of a child, first-degree robbery and third-degree prostitution promotion.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the investigation remains ongoing and urged anyone with information to report it to his office’s human trafficking unit at 212-335-3400.
2026.4.8 Brooklyn grandma viciously beaten after asking women to pick up their dogs’ poop
A 75-year-old Brooklyn grandmother was beaten and had her face stomped on in her own home’s front yard after asking two women to pick up their dogs’ poop, her distraught son said on Wednesday.
Linda Scott was attacked by a woman outside her President St. home near Troy Ave. in Crown Heights around 9 a.m. Monday, cops said.
Video obtained by the Daily News shows the victim arguing with a woman, whose two unleashed dogs run freely on the sidewalk nearby, when another woman wearing a red sweatshirt storms up and starts swinging. The attacker repeatedly punches the elderly victim until she collapses on her front lawn, then kicks her and stomps on her face, the video shows.
“My mom just asked the woman to clean up her dog poop,” the victim’s son, Michael Scott, told The News. “She’s 75 years old, man. Nothing warrants a beatdown like that.”
The victim’s son said a neighbor witnessed the assault and rushed to haul the attacker off his mother.
“If my neighbor didn’t step in, we’d be talking about a murder right now,” Michael Scott said.
Linda Scott was taken to Interfaith Medical Center, where doctors said she narrowly avoided suffering a heart attack due to the assault, her son said.
“Luckily, she wasn’t hit in the chest. She’s had two heart surgeries,” he said.
Shortly before the attack, the victim and her son were in their backyard arguing with two women, including Linda’s attacker, after the women’s dogs defecated in a vacant lot adjacent to the Scott family’s home.
That lot has sat empty and abandoned since a fire in 2011, according to the victim’s son.
“There’s cars on the lot, homeless encampments, people throw out needles there,” Michael Scott said. “All she asked them to do is make sure you clean up your mess.”
Michael said that after his mother confronted the dog owners, they accused her of squirting ammonia on the animals. His mother was dousing the lot in ammonia, Michael said, but only to keep wildlife away from the parcel.
“She didn’t throw it on them,” the victim’s son said. “It’s for the rats and raccoons.”
After the argument, Michael, an MTA train conductor, went into the house. But his mother went alone to their front yard to try to resolve the dispute, he said. The attack that followed was worse than anything he’s experienced in his 18 years in the transit system.
“I’ve been assaulted on my job, spat in my face, threatened, you name it,” he said. “What happened with my mother yesterday, she was just kicked, punched, beaten down.”
“Everything that happened was despicable,” he added. “I want them caught. I don’t care about nothing else. I want them caught.”
2026.4.8 Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife during cliffside hike found guilty of attempted manslaughter
An anesthesiologist accused of trying to kill his wife during a cliffside hike last year in Hawaii was found guilty of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance by a jury in Honolulu on Wednesday.
Gerhardt Konig, 47, was convicted after a three-week trial in which both he and his wife testified. Konig sat down slowly and put a hand over his face after the verdict was read.
The Maui-based doctor had pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder after his arrest and indictment last year on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. His charge stemmed from a March 2025 incident in which prosecutors said Konig assaulted his wife, Arielle Konig, as they walked along a scenic hiking trail in Honolulu. His conviction Wednesday was on a lesser charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
“We respect the verdict. We respect that the jury did their job, considered the evidence, and came to a verdict that they thought fit the evidence and fit the burden of proof in this case, so, that’s all I can say about that,” prosecutor Joel Garner said when asked if he was disappointed Gerhardt Konig wasn’t convicted of the more serious attempted murder charge.
Gerhardt Konig’s defense attorney, Thomas Otake, told reporters outside the courtroom that he plans on appealing, saying he believes there were “many appellate issues” both during and before the trial concerning “some of the judge’s rulings throughout the case.”
Otake said he was “thankful” the jury didn’t convict his client of attempted murder, which would have carried a sentence of life in prison.
The Pali Puka trail wraps around the edge of a cliff and includes a popular but remote lookout spot, where Arielle Konig alleged that her husband attacked her — first, by trying to stab her with a syringe and then by hitting her over the head with a rock. She said in her testimony at his trial that she believed her husband wanted to render her unconscious before pushing her off the cliff.
“I just started screaming, because, in my mind, he’s trying to knock me unconscious, to get to be able to drag me over the edge,” Arielle Konig told the jury.
Arielle Konig said she suffered critical injuries in the attack and has since filed for divorce from her husband. Prosecutors said at the trial that she survived because a pair of hikers saw the assault happening on the trail, prompting Gerhardt Konig to stop. He fled the scene and was eventually arrested after a manhunt that lasted more than six hours, CBS affiliate KGMB-TV reported.
Witnesses corroborated Arielle Konig’s account of what happened. One of them, Amanda Morris, said in her testimony that Gerhardt Konig was “hitting [his wife] with a rock” when she saw them on the trail. Sarah Buchsbaum, another witness, testified that Arielle Konig’s “face was covered in blood.” Buchsbaum called 911.
Arielle Konig testified that her husband was angry with her for having an affair, and that motivated the attack. In his own testimony, Gerhardt Konig’s son, Emile, said his father told him as much during a FaceTime call after it happened. Emile Konig, 19, referred to Gerhardt Konig as “the defendant” when he spoke to jurors from the stand.
Recalling the FaceTime call, Emile Konig said his father told him that “he would not be making it back to Maui, and to take good care of the younger kids, and that Ari, my stepmom, had been cheating on him, and that he tried to kill her.”
Gerhardt Konig claimed self-defense when he took the stand last week, testifying that Arielle Konig grabbed his wrists, threw herself to the ground and hit him on the side of his face with a rock.
When asked by his attorney if he “reacted to defend” himself “in the heat of the moment,” Gerhardt Konig replied, “Yes.” He also insisted he “was not mad” when a prosecutor asked him if text messages that he thought hinted at his wife having an affair had angered him. He told the jury that he “was upset” but had not planned to hurt Arielle Konig on the hiking trail that day and “felt horrible” when he saw his wife bleeding.
Before his arrest, Gerhardt Konig worked as a doctor at Anesthesia Medical Group in Hawaii and, earlier, as an anesthesiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He was also an assistant professor of anesthesiology and bioengineering at the university.
Two men accused of trying to detonate makeshift bombs during protests near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence last month detailed in a notebook and through audio recordings how they hoped their ISIS-inspired attack would kill dozens of people, according to an indictment released Tuesday.
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, who were arrested on March 7 outside Gracie Mansion, were charged with eight crimes, including providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction for the attack, federal prosecutors said.
“All I know is I want to start terror bro” and “I want to petrify these people,” Kayumi told Balat on the morning of the attack, according to dashcam video captured while the two traveled from Pennsylvania to Manhattan, the indictment says.
While detailing their plans during the exchange, Balat predicted they were “gonna kill about 8 to 16 people,” or as many as 30 to 60 people if the area of the attack was crowded, according to the document.
Police said the explosives were capable of causing “serious injury or death,” though no devices exploded and no one was injured in the attack, which unfolded at an anti-Islam demonstration and a counterprotest during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, and his wife Rama Duwaji were not home at the time, he said.
The indictment details evidence obtained from the vehicle allegedly used by Balat and Kayumi, US citizens from Pennsylvania, including a handwritten notebook and approximately three days of dashcam video and audio recordings.
The notebook included steps of their plan, including a list of ingredients and equipment needed for mixing explosives and steps for constructing a bomb.
Elsewhere in the notebook, were details of an apparent alternative plan for an attack using a vehicle and a list of possible targets, “including ‘festivals,’ ‘parades,’ ‘protest,’ and ‘celebrations,’” the document says.
The dashcam recordings captured during their drive from Pennsylvania to Manhattan detailed discussions of how they would conduct the attack, the likely outcome of the attack, and how they were targeting “the government” and “civilians,” the document says.
After the attack, FBI agents recovered “explosive residue and bombmaking supplies” from inside a storage unit in Pennsylvania that Balat had rented just days before, the document says. The evidence included two bowls containing residue of the powerful explosive TATP.
CNN has contacted attorneys for Balat and Kayumi for comment.
2026.4.8 Wisconsin couple allegedly starved six children for years, forcing them to eat mold, bugs and dog food
Casey and Mary Cano’s six children were between ages 1 to 9 during the alleged abuse in Crawford County
The wedding between billionaire Stephen Cloobeck and the Penthouse Pet accused of shaking down rich old men for money took a dramatic turn when she pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday.
Adva Lavie stood in front of Judge Diego Edber as he explained the rules of her electronic monitoring, including not being able to leave California without permission and stripping away her passport.
Their ceremony is set to take place on June 18 near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Cloobeck told The Post via a text message.
The ruling puts the destination wedding in jeopardy. When Lavie was asked by the California Post if she was still planning on going to Jerusalem for the wedding, she looked up at the sky and kept silent.
The model was also tight lipped about Cloobeck’s whereabouts and if they were indeed getting married on June 18 still. Her only words outside court were: “I just can’t wait for this nightmare to be over with.”
Cloobeck has burned more than $1 million on representative Eric Swalwell’s run for California governor.
The Penthouse Pet showed up in a green ALO sweat suit with a green handbag and tennis shoes swarmed by lawyers.
When she reached the courtroom she was seen grabbing at her electronic ankle monitor. The hearing got off to a chaotic start with three trips by lawyers from both sides to a closed door discussion in chambers.
After the parties emerged, the judge said Lavie had pleaded not guilty to all charges. It was also announced attorney Jeremy Lessim had joined her legal team.
Lessim was lead attorney for rap mogul Suge Knight during his high profile 2016 murder trial. Lavie’s legal team is being funded by Cloobeck, the Post learned.
When asked why another lawyer was added to the team, one of Lavie’s original attorneys Jeff Rubenstein replied, “It takes a village.”
When asked why Cloobeck wasn’t in court, Rubenstein said “You’d have to ask him that.”
Prosecutors allege between 2023 and 2025 Lavie used dating apps to cultivate relationships with wealthy older men and younger women across Los Angeles County, including in Beverly Hills and WeHo.
The alleged honey trapper is charged with six felonies, including two counts of grand theft, two counts of burglary and two counts of unauthorized use of personal identifying information.
Prosecutors had asked Lavie’s GPS monitoring be updated to alert authorities to restrictions. Lessim argued that she was “not a flight risk” and that there was “no evidence that she is trying to flee.”
He added: “She’s taken responsibility.” The judge made it clear that if Lavie did leave California she would need to provide ample notice. He also said she should remain in a treatment program.
Her trial will begin May 18.
Multiple activists were arrested for occupying the lobby of the Palantir building in the West Village after a protest in which Mayor Mamdani stood with hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers on the sixth night of Passover to protest the federal immigration crackdown.
Mamdani joined more than 500 activists at Union Square for “Sedar in the Streets,” a protest in which demonstrators recite prayers, sing songs and rally against corporate collusion with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
“Thank you for showing us what it looks like, showing us what it means to live out the lessons of Passover,” Mamdani said. “Lessons of hope overcoming fear, of solidarity being able to overcome isolation, and the knowledge that at the end of the story, freedom is attained, and with it the sweetness of liberation.”
After rallying at the park, the protestors headed to Palantir‘s offices, located about a half mile west, at 45 W. 18th St. near Sixth Ave., where they joined another demonstration in which more than two dozen activists occupied the building’s lobby as hundreds more waited outside.
Police took multiple protestors into custody after orders to vacate the building were ignored, according to an NYPD spokesman. Charges remained pending Monday night.
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A Honduran national has been charged with relentlessly shooting two men on a Brooklyn sidewalk on Easter Sunday — leaving one young victim dead and the other critically injured, according to authorities.
Michael Mendoza Cardona, 24, was charged on Monday with murder, attempted murder, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the deadly shooting that unfolded Sunday evening outside a building on Fulton Street in Cypress Hills, according to sources and the NYPD.
Harrowing surveillance footage allegedly captured Mendoza Cardona shooting Jose Urena Moran, 30, and a 50-year-old man underneath the elevated J-train subway platform between Cleveland and Elton streets.
The clip obtained by The Post captured the two men standing on the sidewalk near a group of about three men.
After one of the men in the pair appeared to say something to the crew, the alleged killer whipped out a gun and calmly fired several shots at him and the man he was standing near.
The brazen gunman continued to pump bullets into the victims even as they lay motionless on the sidewalk, the disturbing footage showed.
Both unidentified men were taken to Brookdale University Medical Center in critical condition. Moran, of Cypress Hills, was later pronounced dead, police said.
It’s unclear if Mendoza Cardona was in the country illegally. The Post has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for clarity.
An investigation remains ongoing.
2026.4.6 LI son beats elderly mom over head 36 times with metal clamp, screams, ‘Why aren’t you dying?’: cops
An enraged Long Island man beat his 75-year-old mother over the head with a metal clamp more than 36 times during a fight, screaming, “Why aren’t you dying?’’ according to prosecutors.
John Strano, 37, launched the violent attack on his elderly mom at the family’s Williston Park home on the evening of April 1, the Nassau County Police Department said in a news release.
It is unclear what the pair was fighting about, but the badly wounded victim was able to call 911 after the incident and tell detectives her son pushed her to the ground, repeatedly punched her in the face, slammed her head against the ground and hit her with a metal object and choked her, the department said.
Prosecutors later revealed the accused sicko used a metal clamp to strike her in the back of the head more than three dozen times, according to News 12.
Strano allegedly confessed to screaming at his mother, “Why aren’t you dying?” and “Why are you still breathing?” when cops caught up with him at a local elementary school’s baseball field hours later.
The victim – who reportedly lost consciousness during the attack, and suffered swelling to her face and head and severe lacerations – was taken to an area hospital and listed in stable condition.
Strano was charged with second-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree assault, criminal obstruction of breathing/blood circulation and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held behind bars without bail.
2026.4.5 Rock-headed bozo steals $11K geodes from arts center in ritzy Rye — then tries to sell them to cop: report
A rock-for-brains buffoon allegedly stole geodes worth thousands of dollars from an art center in ritzy Rye, but was nabbed while attempting to pawn the goods on Facebook Marketplace, according to reports.
Kyle Folkes, 27, was arrested during a Facebook Marketplace meetup at Harbor Island Park in neighboring Mamaroneck in Westchester County on Tuesday when he unknowingly scheduled a sale with an undercover cop.
Folkes, of New Rochelle, was allegedly selling a batch of geodes that were taken from a display at the Rye Arts Center a week earlier.
Reports said that the coveted collection was valued at $10,908, according to the Rye Police Department.
A Facebook frequenter reported Folkes’ eyebrow-raising sale, according to reports.
The geodes were donated to the RAC by local benefactor Robert R. Wiener, MyRye.com reported. Since the center has no outdoor security cameras, police largely relied on the public for information, the outlet said.
Nine geodes were reportedly stolen between March 20 and March 23. It’s not immediately clear how many were in Folkes’ possession.
“We are really disappointed that this happened,” RAC Executive Director Adam Levi told MyRye.com. “The geodes brighten everyone’s day when they see them, especially the kids who regularly stop by to enjoy them in the garden. They truly are ‘nature’s art.’ Hoping that whoever took them has a change of heart and returns them to their home.”
Folkes was charged with third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, which could land him behind bars for up to seven years, the report said.
He was released on his own recognizance and is due back in court on April 9.
The geodes were taken in as evidence but will be returned to the RAC at the tail-end of the investigation, the Larchmont Loop reported.
The theft is still under investigation.
2026.4.3 3 state troopers plead not guilty to charges connected to death of recruit after boxing match
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A supervisor and two instructors with a Massachusetts State Police tactical unit plead not guilty Thursday in connection with the death of a recruit who suffered a concussion during a sparring session and blunt force injuries a day later in what investigators called an “unapproved and unsafe” boxing match.
Enrique Delgado-Garcia, 25, died at a hospital on Sept. 13, 2024, a day after undergoing a “medical crisis” and becoming unresponsive during a defensive tactics exercise in the boxing ring, authorities said at the time. Charges in these types of cases are exceedingly rare.
David Meier, an investigator appointed by Massachusetts’ attorney general, announced in February that the supervisor and the instructors in the police academy’s defensive tactics unit were being charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily injury to a person participating in training. The supervisor also was charged with perjury in connection with her grand jury testimony.
Meier had said unsafe sparring sessions led to the trainee’s concussion, adding he sustained “multiple blunt force injuries to the head and massive brain bleeding” a day later after academy staff failed to stop a training boxing match.
Lt. Jennifer Penton, the supervisor and a sergeant at the time she was charged, along with Troopers Edwin Rodriguez and David Montanez, entered not guilty pleas to all charges before Worcester Superior Court Judge J. Gavin Reardon Jr.. A fourth trooper, Casey LaMonte, faces arraignment April 14.
All plead not guilty
In a packed courtroom, Penton, Rodriguez and Montanez stood together and responded “not guilty” as the charges were read. Across the courtroom, relatives of Delgado-Garcia watched quietly. A handful of people outside court help up signs showing the trainee’s face and the words, “Justice For Enrique.”
The three defendants were released on personal recognizance under several conditions including having no contact with potential witnesses in the case.
Outside court, the family’s attorney, Mike Wilcox, said Thursday was “a difficult and long day” for Delgado-Garcia’s relatives, some seen holding back tears.
“They’ve been patient. They have been gracious through all this. They have shown nothing but class,” Wilcox said.
“They are grieving still, as you can tell, and they are going to stick with this process for as long as it takes,” he said. “They want justice for Enrique, and they want to make sure that the process is fair and that Enrique is heard here.”
The defendants didn’t speak exiting the court but their attorneys called the death a “tragic accident” and said the three were just doing their jobs and would be found innocent.
“The tragedy of Trooper Delgado is not a crime. Filing these criminal charges will not bring Trooper Delgado Garcia back,” Penton’s lawyer Brad Bailey said. “The Commonwealth’s effort to apply … convoluted legal theory to the underlying facts will not change them. Nor will it transform this tragedy into criminal conduct.”
Attorney defends training and troopers
Kevin Reddington, representing Montanez, described all three troopers as “good people” and defended the training as necessary to prepare recruits for their crime-fighting duties.
“It’s so easy for people to say oh my goodness that was just too rough,” Reddington said. “This is reckless conduct that they’re alleging, manslaughter charges that they are alleging against people that were doing their job, consistent with rules, regulations, and what has been recognized as valid training.”
Brian Williams, the president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, also defended the troopers.
“These members and our entire defensive tactics staff are among the best in the nation and all established protocols were strictly followed,” he said.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell appointed Meier in February and said it was important to have an independent, impartial investigatio. It follows calls from advocacy groups and Delgado-Garcia’s family and friends for those responsible to be held accountable.
More than 30 recruits have died in academies since 2015
An Associated Press investigation, “ Dying to Serve, ” has found that more than 30 recruits have died during law enforcement academies since 2015, caused by a mix of violent or grueling training exercises, heat, exertion and other medical conditions.
The number of deaths have risen in recent years as departments turn to less-traditional candidates to fill openings but maintain longstanding academy drills. Investigators have generally treated them as unfortunate but unavoidable medical incidents, and criminal charges have rarely been considered.
The charges in Massachusetts are believed to be the first related to a police academy recruit’s death in years. In examining the deaths of 37 recruits since 2005, AP could not find any other case that led to criminal charges.
Other forms of legal accountability, including civil lawsuits and workplace safety investigations, have also rarely been pursued. Families have struggled to collect federal death benefits, even after Congress passed a law clarifying that recruits were eligible.
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2026.4.2 What to know about serial killer Ted Bundy and his rampage of violence
Ted Bundy’s rampage of violence spanned at least four years and left dozens of victims behind, including at least 30 women and girls who were killed — and several others who escaped or survived despite serious injuries.
Though the serial killer has been dead for nearly 40 years, the tally of his confirmed victims continues to grow as DNA testing has advanced. A Utah sheriff confirmed Wednesday that Bundy was responsible for the unsolved death of a Utah teen in 1974. The office expected another cold case would also be “close to closure” soon thanks to the creation of Bundy’s full DNA profile, Utah County sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Reynolds said.
Bundy is one of the most prolific serial killers in United States history — though others likely had higher total victim counts, including Gary Ridgway, who admitted to killing 49; Samuel Little, who killed more than 60; and Donald Harvey who pleaded guilty to killing 37 people.
Bundy drew widespread fascination, in part because many considered him to be charming and handsome at his 1979 trial.
Here are some things to know about Bundy and his crimes.
He targeted young women and girls
It’s unknown when Bundy first began his attacks, but the deaths linked to him began in Washington state in 1974. He had grown up in Tacoma, Washington, and many of his earliest known violent crimes happened around Seattle.
An 18-year-old University of Washington student was sleeping in her home near the Seattle campus in January 1974 when someone broke in and attacked her, leaving her with a fractured skull. She survived but with permanent injuries. Bundy was believed to be responsible for the crime, which fit a pattern he established in later years, often breaking into young women’s homes, bludgeoning and sexually assaulting them, and either leaving them to die or dumping their bodies elsewhere.
The next month, Lynda Ann Healy, another University of Washington student, vanished from her home. A small bit of blood was found on her bedding, and her remains were found the next year on Taylor Mountain, a remote area outside a neighboring city. The remains of some of Bundy’s other victims were also found at the same site.
Over the next few months, other women were also abducted from Washington state and Oregon. In some of the cases, witnesses saw the women talking to a man who was wearing an arm sling.
By October, teen girls in Utah were also vanishing. The body of 17-year-old Melissa Anne Smith was found on a hillside in Summit Park, Utah, and her head had been beaten with a crowbar.
Carol DaRonch, an 18-year-old, was snatched by Bundy when he claimed to be a police officer investigating car break-ins. But she survived by jumping out of his car after he tried to handcuff her. DaRonch’s testimony would later be instrumental in putting Bundy behind bars.
Bundy continued killing throughout the next year in Utah, Colorado and Idaho.
He escaped law enforcement custody twice
Bundy was arrested for the first time in connection with the disappearances August 1975, when police pulled him over and found incriminating items including rope, handcuffs and a ski mask, in his vehicle.
He was found guilty the following year of kidnapping and assaulting DaRonch. Bundy was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that crime, and while imprisoned he was charged in connection with the earlier death of a nursing student.
He was brought to Aspen, Colorado, for a hearing in that case in 1977, and he escaped custody by climbing out a second-story courthouse window. He was caught about a week later, but escaped again six months later by breaking through the ceiling of a jail.
That time Bundy fled across the country, eventually making his way to Tallahassee, Florida. On Jan. 15, 1978, he entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, bludgeoning two women to death with a large branch and leaving two more badly injured. He then went to another house nearby, badly injuring another sleeping woman.
Less than a month later, he abducted, sexually assaulted and killed a 12-year-old girl in Lake City, Florida. Kimberly Leach was believed to be his final victim: Bundy was arrested when he was pulled over in Pensacola while driving a stolen vehicle.
He was seen as a handsome charmer
Bundy’s case, and his self-assured attitude in court, drew widespread attention during his 1979 trial for the Chi Omega murders.
“I don’t know what it is he has, but he’s fascinating,” one teenage spectator told an AP reporter covering the trial. “He’s impressive. He just has a kind of magnetism.”
Even the judge presiding over the trial said Bundy was a “bright young man” who would have made a good lawyer. But Judge Edward Cowart also recognized Bundy as a horrifically violent killer and sentencing him to die for “extremely wicked, shocking evil and vile” crimes.
Bundy was executed on Jan. 24, 1989 by electric chair in Florida. He gave a series of confessions in his final days, including to some crimes that were previously unknown to police. Not all of those cases have been confirmed.
DNA testing led to the latest confirmed victim
New DNA testing confirmed that more than 50 years ago, Bundy also killed 17-year-old Laura Ann Aime.
Aime went missing in Utah on Halloween night in 1974, and her body was found a month later on the side of a highway. Authorities believed she had been kept alive for several days after her abduction.
Bundy had long been a suspect in the case, but there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him while he was alive. Luckily, the evidence from the case was carefully preserved, and advancements in DNA forensic technology eventually allowed investigators to extract a DNA profile to match Bundy and officially close Aime’s case. _
Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum contributed from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Laura Ann Aime was last seen alive leaving a Halloween party in 1974.
Authorities in Utah said Wednesday they have confirmed “without a doubt” that Ted Bundy murdered a 17-year-old girl more than 50 years ago, in a case long suspected to have been tied to the notorious serial killer.
Laura Ann Aime was last seen alive leaving a Halloween party in Utah County in 1974, authorities said. Her body was found a month later by two college students on a Thanksgiving Day hike in American Fork Canyon, according to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office. She had been beaten and strangled, and her naked body was found bound, according to authorities.
The crime had similarities to those committed by Bundy, who admitted to kidnapping and murdering young women throughout the Western United States in the 1970s. Prior to his execution in 1989, he even confessed to Aime’s killing — though his confession “was deemed to be not enough evidence to close the case and rule out any other party having had committed this crime,” Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
Now, the sheriff’s office said it is able to close Aime’s case — with bodily fluids recovered from her body matching Bundy’s DNA profile.
“We can now say, without a doubt, that Theodore ‘Ted’ Bundy did in fact did murder Laura Ann Aime in the fall of 1974, and that law enforcement now has DNA testing results that are compatible with the latest DNA testing standards,” Smith said. “This will make any future DNA test comparison easier for those law enforcement agencies who still have open cases involving Bundy.”
If Bundy were still alive, Smith said his office “would have pursued this case to the fullest extent” and asked the Utah County Attorney’s Office to seek the death penalty.
Bundy was convicted of three murders in Florida and was executed by electric chair in 1989 at the age of 42. Prior to his execution, he confessed to killing 30 people, though is believed to have killed more than 100.
Aime’s sister, Michelle Impala, was 12 when her sister was murdered. She said they were “really close.”
“We rode horses together, she was very passionate about animals and her horse,” Impala said at the briefing.
“She was just fun,” Impala said. “I thought she was fun because, you know, I’m a little kid just following her around, but we have a lot in common — the love of animals and just being outside and doing the things that you do when you live on a farm full of animals.”
Impala said her sister and their parents would be happy to know that the case is now officially closed, and thanked the sheriff’s office for being “so passionate” about resolving it.
“It’s really quite amazing that people even are still interested in Laura’s case. But I appreciate it,” she said.
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A young couple shot dead in an apparent murder-suicide in a Queens apartment had a stormy relationship, with neighbors saying their shouting matches could be heard throughout the building.
Keyriana Jimenez Rodriguez, 18, and her 20-year-old boyfriend were found dead in an 84th St. apartment near 34th Ave. in Jackson Heights around 1:50 a.m., cops said.
In the moments before they were killed, witnesses overheard arguing, followed by several shots being fired, according to a law enforcement source.
“They were always fighting. It was terrible,” said a 63-year-old neighbor, who asked that her name be withheld. “They would shout awful things at one another. Everyone could hear. It was continual.”
The boyfriend’s 19-year-old brother, who was in another room at their sixth-floor apartment, and a neighbor called 911 after hearing the shots.
Police believe the man shot his girlfriend, then turned the gun on himself. The man’s name was not immediately released.
“He had serious problems with his girlfriend. He couldn’t contain his emotions,” said a 65-year-old neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous. “I couldn’t believe it because he said he was happy he had just found a job.”
“I only met his girlfriend once or twice,” he added. “She seemed nice.”
Rodriguez’s family hails from the Dominican Republic, where they were horrified to learn of her death, according to a local news outlet.
“This has been a massive shock for the family,” the victim’s father, Kelvin Adrián Jiménez, told Info El Nuevo Norte in Spanish.
The girl’s grandmother, Adriana de la Cruz, said in Spanish that she “absolutely adored” Rodriguez, whom she remembered as “more than a granddaughter, like a daughter.”
Rodriguez was reportedly living in the United States with her mother. Neighbors said her boyfriend lived with his father and two brothers, but were unsure whether couple lived together.
Los Angeles cops are stomping out the city’s scourge of street takeovers with hundreds of arrests this year, Chief Jim McDonnell said Thursday.
The illegal gatherings, where burnout-loving mobs destroy, vandalize and steal, have worsened since January, according to city officials, prompting Mayor Karen Bass last month to announce increased patrols in downtown LA.
The social-media fueled takeovers often pop off on weekend nights throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Cars block intersections and create a “pit” for other drivers to rip burnouts and donuts. Spectators flock around the middle, filming cars as they screech past, with daring passengers hanging dangerously from their windows.
Even if the drivers avoid an accident, cops say takeovers result in traffic blockages, damage to roadways, noise, litter and other problems for residents and businesses.
And more often, cops say, the takeover mobs are spinning out of control.
A violent takeover in downtown LA last month March spiraled into chaos, with participants causing thousands of dollars in damage to the luxury Circa LA Apartments across the street from the LA Convention Center.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to almost 700 street takeovers last year, McDonnell said in an appearance on KTLA. Cops made 1,700 traffic stops related to the vehicular mayhem and issued more than 1,700 citations, he said.
In all, police made nearly 300 arrests, at takeovers last year, said McDonnell, and the department is “were trending in that direction again this year.”
But crushing the takeovers is a challenge, he said, in part because they often draw hundreds of participants.
“Look at the number of people around there,” McDonnell said of the mobs. “There are people around for the blocks around it, as well.”
Takeovers draw throngs of cars, as well as spectators on foot, who occupy streets and sidewalks.
The sheer numbers make it difficult to get police cars and officers into the pit, “to be able to do enforcement,” McDonnell said.
When cops finally do penetrate, McDonnell said, they often find themselves badly outnumbered. “When you get in there, if you go in with a single car or a couple of cars, you get overwhelmed by the crowd,” he said
The department has a special taskforce to fight the takeovers, said McDonnell. It’s regarded by cops as one of the trickiest beats, because the takeovers are often organized online with just hours’ notice or seemingly materialize from thin air.
“It’s hard to prevent them from happening,” said McDonnell. “They’re spontaneous. We scour the web to be able to try and come up with where these are going to be, as best we can.”
One proven tactic for fighting takeovers is to increase patrols, cops say. Just days after the takeover near the Circa LA Apartments exploded into a riot, Bass announced that the LAPD would launch a strategic deployment across downtown LA.
The new policing push floods the area with patrol cars, horse-mounted officers, foot patrols and undercover units, according to the mayor’s office.
“What happened at Circa LA Apartments is despicable,” said Bass. “And we have zero tolerance for street takeovers.”
City officials said the fortified police force will remain in place as authorities try to prevent future takeovers — and send the message that the city’s downtown hub is safe.
The moped-riding goons who shot a 7-month-old Brooklyn girl to death in her stroller were aiming for her dad, law enforcement sources said.
Little Kaori’s father, Jamari Patterson, who lives in the nearby Bushwick Houses, was apparently targeted in the brazen Wednesday afternoon hit over a social media beef with a crew from a rival housing project, investigators now believe, the sources said.
Patterson and Kaori’s mom were pushing a double stroller with the baby girl and her 2-year-old brother near the corner of Humboldt and Moore Streets in East Williamsburg when the deadly duo opened fire from a moped around 1:20 p.m., according to cops.
The gunmen missed Patterson, 22, but struck the helpless tot in the head with the bullet, which then grazed her 2-year-old brother’s back before the thugs sped off.
“We thought it was fireworks, but my son jumped out of the stroller and I picked him up and carried him,” Kaori’s devastated mom Lianna Charles-Moore, 20, told The Post Wednesday.
“I was hugging him and then when I looked to my left, my daughter was just there, lying there. She was shot in the head. She was just bleeding. It was just too much.”
The baby was rushed to Woodhall Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:46 p.m.
The perps crashed their moped two blocks away from the shooting scene.
Th alleged shooter Amuri Greene, 21, flipped off the e-bike and ended up in the hospital, where he was identified as a person of interest in the baby’s death.
Greene remained hospitalized with a leg injury Thursday and has not yet been charged, however, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said he is expected to face murder charges.
The accused baby killer lives in the Marcy Houses, which has had a longstanding feud with the Bushwick Houses, according to sources. The NYCHA facilities are less than a mile apart.
Meanwhile, a “massive NYPD manhunt” has been launched to track down the driver of the moped, who fled the scene and is on the lam, Tisch said.
Kaori’s heartbroken mom said she wants justice for her baby girl who had just begun to say “mamma” before her tragic death.
2026.4.1 Dine-and-dash diva carted off in ambulance after discovering she’s still locked out of luxury NYC pad
Check, please.
Notorious dine-and-dash diva Pei Chung was hauled off on a gurney Tuesday night after returning to her luxury Williamsburg waterfront apartment, only to discover she was still locked out.
Photos obtained by The Post show Chung, 34, strapped to a stretcher inside an ambulance outside the building, capping another chaotic chapter for the Taiwanese national who made headlines for allegedly skipping out on tabs at nearly a dozen high-end restaurants in Brooklyn.
The Prada-loving faux foodie was booted from her $3,500-a-month plush pad at 416 Kent Ave. back in December for owing $40,000 in overdue rent and has since bounced between Rikers Island and psychiatric wards.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the 911 call, what ailment she suffered or where she was taken.
Chung had been facing multiple counts of theft of services for allegedly stiffing several of the Big Apple’s ritziest restaurants after ordering hundreds of dollars’ worth of food, but a judge tossed the charges last month after she was found mentally unfit to stand trial.
She was sent to a state hospital for mental health treatment following the dismissal of charges.
The serial scofflaw still has an active immigration detainer, though it remains unclear whether she is facing formal deportation proceedings.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The wannabe influencer’s dining crime spree brought her infamy rather than social clout after restaurants across Williamsburg reported her waltzing out on checks — instead offering a measly social post.
Chung often posted about the pricey dishes on her page in addition to running a mediocre blog reviewing her meals. She had been known to bring her own lighting equipment and camera to record herself as a supposed influencer trying out the dishes.
Unimpressed by the offer, some of Brooklyn’s priciest spots, including Misi, Francie, Lavender Lake, Motorino and Peter Luger, had called the cops on her bill-skipping shenanigans.
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