A 40-year-old man and a teenage boy have been charged with murder and numerous other charges in connection with a gruesome killing in the Bronx, the district attorney said. In the murder, the victim was dismembered and placed in a shopping cart, which was then set on fire.
Police said Lutalo Henderson’s charred body was found in a shopping cart on Aug. 5 under the Oak Street Bridge in Yonkers, near the Mount Vernon border. Firefighters were dispatched to report that a fire had broken out under the bridge, but the bodies were discovered shortly after the fire was extinguished.
An investigation revealed that the victim was murdered in his Bronx home, the same location where additional dismembered body parts related to the incident were found.
Police officials said officers executing a search warrant at a home on Rogers Place in the Longwood neighborhood found human remains in the kitchen, a human hand in a pot and a foot in the freezer. A gun and drug paraphernalia were found in the bedroom.
According to the investigation results, the suspects, Muhammad Ardil and Ronay Harris, 18, are suspected of killing 46-year-old Henderson between July 27 and August 5. are. The incident took place inside the home shared by Ardil and Henderson.
The investigation revealed that after killing Mr. Henderson, Mr. Ardil and Mr. Harris amputated Mr. Henderson’s hands and feet below the knee and also removed his jaw. Investigators say the torso was wrapped in trash bags, placed in a shopping cart, and the pair took it to Metro-North in Yonkers.
A senior NYPD official previously told NBC New York that police captured footage of a man rolling a shopping cart onto a Metro-North train in the Bronx and that it appears to be the same shopping cart that was later found on fire. .
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark announced Tuesday that Ardil will be charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, concealing a corpse, gun possession and other drug charges. Police later announced that Harris would face similar charges.
“The defendants allegedly killed and dismembered the man, then took some of his remains in a shopping cart onto a Metro-North train bound for Yonkers, where they burned the cart,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. is a brutal disrespect for humanity.” .
Ardil was arraigned and remanded in the Bronx on Monday. The next court hearing is scheduled for Dec. 19, and Harris will be arraigned at a later date, the prosecutor’s office said.
Attorney information for Mr. Ardil and Mr. Harris was not immediately available.
