Ismail Hosameldin was arrested on suspicion of having slit the throat of Maximito Polanco, a 55-year-old man, inside his apartment in Inwood (Upper Manhattan, NYC).
Hosameldin, 34, was arraigned yesterday on charges including murder and criminal possession of a weapon hours after the bloody crime that took place Tuesday afternoon, according to police.
The suspect had been subletting Polanco a room inside the apartment located on the 5th floor on Arden St. between Nagle and Sherman Aves., where he allegedly slit Polanco’s throat after a dispute around 4:14 p.m. Tuesday, he said. Daily News.
Paramedics rushed to stabilize the victim at his home, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives detained two suspects for questioning, but released the second man after his attention turned to Hosameldin, according to police.
A neighbor told reporters that she was not familiar with Polanco or the suspect, but said that a strange man had been threatening residents of the building in the days leading up to the murder, banging on doors and demanding access in an effort to enter the apartment where the crime took place.
Luisa Páez, 33, who lived next door to Polanco, described the man as disturbed and said police at one point escorted him to a hospital for medication. “My children are terrified,” said another man, who did not give his name. “They are afraid to go out because of what happened.”
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
In recent months, several fatal cases of violence between roommates or neighbors have been reported in New York. In early May, a man turned himself in to the police as allegedly responsible for shooting his neighbor, a young immigrant father who died in the arms of his girlfriend in the Bronx in April.
In April a 62-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing his roommate in Brooklyn (NYC).
In March, two men were shot dead and another wounded at NYCHA buildings in Queens and Brooklyn within hours of each other. That month, a woman also stabbed to death her neighbor, a 27-year-old father of two children, during an alleged argument over noise in a building in the Bronx.
At the end of January, a 62-year-old man was murdered in his apartment in the Bronx and his Hispanic roommate was arrested on suspicion of having committed the crime.
In December, a 46-year-old ex-con turned himself in to police on suspicion of fatally shooting his neighbor amid a lengthy argument over the noise he was making at his Bronx residence.
- Noise is the new “excuse” to kill in NYC: complaints and attacks by rowdy neighbors increase