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Posted on 07/13/2011 7:34:29 AM PDT by raccoonradio
An 8-year-old boy who went missing after leaving day camp in Brooklyn Monday afternoon has been found dead, and police suspect he was snatched off the street by a stranger who later suffocated and dismembered him, NBC New York has learned.
Leibby Kletzky's body has been found in two separate locations, police say. He would have turned nine years old this month.
Law-enforcement sources tell NBC New York police were led to a Dumpster along 20th Street and Fourth Avenue after tracking down a person of interest who told authorities he killed Kletzky and left his body in that area.
Police got a tip about the person based on video released late Tuesday night, and tracked it to a man in Kensington.
The 38-year-old man seen in the video is now in police custody and being questioned by detectives, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told NBC New York. Charges are pending; investigators believe the crime was random.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was set to hold a news conference later Wednesday.
That man was taken into custody at 2:40 a.m. Wednesday at his home, where he made statements implicating himself in the boy's death, police said. A source tells NBC New York that he said he suffocated the child first before dismembering his body.
Browne says remains believed to be that of the child were found in a refrigerator in the third floor attic of the suspect's Brooklyn apartment and in a Dumpster, wrapped in a black plastic bag that was inside a red suitcase.
The suspect lives in the third floor of his parents' house on Avenue C. His parents live on the ground floor and another tenant lives on the second floor of the building.
Outside the family's apartment building Wednesday morning, men and women from the community clustered in separate groups. Many of the mothers gathered there said the streets are safe enough for a child Leibby's age to walk home alone.
"This is a no-crime area," said Assemblyman Dov Hikind, whose district includes the area.
Before establishing the suspect's identity, detectives observed him on video entering a dentist's office on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn at about 5:30 p.m. Monday, not long after the boy had been reported missing, Browne said.
Detectives located one of the dentists who worked in the office late Tuesday night and established that the suspect had been in the dentist's office to pay a bill. With the help of a receptionist and another dentist associated with the practice, detectives found the suspect's name and address.
He was apprehended 40 minutes later, Browne said.
The medical examiner removed the suitcase from the Dumpster for examination. The entire Dumpster is also being taken to the crime lab for further evaluation. Detectives are reviewing surveillance cameras from buildings near the crime scene and plan to canvass the area for witnesses.
Hikind says the funeral for the boy will be held later Wednesday. Police officers confirm they're putting up "no parking today" signs on 16th Avenue between 57th and 55th streets because of expected crowds.
Kletzky was last seen around 4:50 p.m. Monday as he left his day camp at Yeshiva Boyan on 44th Street in Borough Park.
He was supposed to meet his parents about seven blocks away, but did not show up. It was the first time the boy had been allowed to leave the camp on his own, sources told NBC New York.
The boy had been seen on surveillance video walking alone, including one that was in the opposite direction from where he was supposed to be going.
The man in custody was Jewish but it's not clear if he's Hasidic. Authorities say he once had a summons for public urination but otherwise did not have a criminal record.
Hikind said the boy was the only son of the Kletzky family. The couple has four daughters, and the husband works as a driver for a private car service.
I’m sure the Casey Anthony jurors would get him off if they were available. Just having feet in your freezer probably wouldn’t be enough evidence for them, since somebody else could have put them there.
“...Hasidics are not a group that plays well with others.”
My parents were Italian and the Hasidic Jews were their best neighbors. Never a harsh word nor action between them. Italians and others in the neighborhood stirred the pot. That being said no one group of people is perfect. There are rotten apples in every bushel.
That “urinating in public” is a bit of a red flag. I suspect that he was exposing himself, probably to children, and some lawyer got it reduced to urinating in public, or that’s what he claimed he was doing.
Let’s make a date:
We’ll all come back and revisit this case 3 years from now and see if we’re all outraged after having followed it on TV for the whole 3 years.
A. The media provides complete cover for Islamic violence
B. You’re giving far too much credit to the MSM. See A.
Well they couldn’t come right out and say, “the man in custody is NOT Muslim”. That would be too obvious.
///
great point!
...it’s just the flip side of the media avoiding “muslim”, in cases where the criminal is one.
headlines like:
“British Mother living in London kills daughter”
(Somali Muslim, who cut her daughters heart out,
while listening to the Quran...)
http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4715581
Or that Swedish man, who immigrated from France, who was arrested for making a bomb.
(...Muslim. born in Morocco.)
the MSM is a willing accomplice.
Paging Jose Baez.
This suspect has probably done something like this before.
I disagree vehemently with Hikind on a couple of important things (namely The Passion of the Christ) but despite being a Democrat he is hardly "liberal": he opposes the UN, he apparently supports racial profiling of Muslims in NYC Subways and opposes same-sex "marriage." That puts him ahead of a number of Republican Assemblymen in NY.
The lesson: clearly you never get into the car of ANYONE you do not know, and you train your children from a VERY young age NOT to get into ANYONE’s car without permission, regardless of what community you live in.
“’The man in custody was Jewish but it’s not clear if he’s Hasidic.’ What the heck does that matter?”
FWIW, I wanted to know. The Hasids, even in NY, are a pretty tight nit group, and it would be an indication if the killer knew the boy and/or the scope of the betrayal.
This is ridiculously untrue. Also, there are MANY different sects of Chasidism.
It's even worse than that. This little boy approached HIM for help as he was lost. Probably thought this capped, bearded guy was a member of his community and trusted him on sight.
“neighborhood. Hasidics are not a group that plays well with others. They are often at odds with police and their non-Hasidic neighbors.”
I married into a Hasidic family (my family is Israeli and would be called “modern Orthodox” in the USA), and they are wonderful, open, and accepting.
Indeed, the only problem has been them trying to force me to own and run their family business here in the USA because their son is a fool, when I want to go back to Israel (with their daughter and granddaughters, which is the rub).
update from NY Post:
>>Kelly said Aron “panicked” when he saw the police response to find the boy and “that’s why he killed the boy.”
Yes, they always leave out those “little” details. Thanks!
It takes your breath away. I remember reading a thread yesterday that he’d gone missing. The perp will turn out to be a mental case. My heart breaks for the parents and the horror poof Leibby lived in his last moment.
I can say from experience that the people of Borough Park are very nice. I ended up there the first time wearing an obscenely short dress when my friend needed to make an unexpected detour. That obviously did not go over well, but a sweet little old lady found me a chair and gave me a blanket to make me more comfortable while I waited for my friend. Obviously there are bad apples everywhere, but the people I met were always friendly. I feel so terrible for everyone in that community.
Funny, my dad is the opposite. He’s ready to stick me on a plane and send me to Israel.
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