NYPD: Car stop leads to arrest in stabbing deaths, assaults
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig announces Monday that the man accused of a deadly New York City crime spree is under arrest.
By Zinnia Maldonado
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NEW YORK (WCBS) — A man accused of a deadly New York City crime spree is under arrest.
The NYPD says 35-year-old Roland Codrington of Manhattan is responsible for the murder of a doctor he came across at Marcus Garvey Park and a man found dead on a Lower East Side street.
He’s also accused of attacking three people inside a Harlem bar.
The incidents all took place within the last several days.
In what the NYPD calls a random attack, 60-year-old pediatrician Dr. Bruce Maurice Henry was found dead inside Marcus Garvey Park the day before Christmas Eve at 2 a.m.
Police say Codrington was walking through the park to “cool off” after assaulting three people nearby when he got into an argument and allegedly stabbed him in the back, torso, eye and hands.
“Earlier on December 24, detectives were able to track down the deceased’s auto, a black Mercedes Benz, was in the vicinity of the park,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig.
Police found Codrington driving the victim’s Mercedes Benz the next night in the Bronx, arresting him not only for one murder, but two, and multiple assaults.
“Further investigation revealed that this person was involved in a violent spree beginning December 19 and ending December 23,” Essig said.
Police say around 11 p.m. Dec. 22, a few hours before the doctor’s murder, Codrington entered Teddy’s Bar and Grill along Second Avenue with a pit bull and a baseball bat, where he allegedly choke a 29-year-old woman who was working behind the bar. When two men tried to intervene, police say Codrington stabbed one in the chest and the other in the back.
“All suffered non-life threatening injuries. During the investigation, it was determined that the perpetrator had a previous dispute in a bar approximately a week ago, because he felt disrespected by the employees,” Essig said.
Three days before, on Dec. 19, a 51-year-old man was foudn dead outside of 214 Avenue A, around 1 a.m. Police say Codrington was caught on camera stabbing him in the neck, and believe this attack was also random.
“Video outside captures our victim walking southbound on Avenue A. A male approached him, engaged in a dispute for approximately 20 seconds, and pulls out a knife and slashes our victim across the neck,” Essig said.
Police say because they believe the two murders were random they’re now looking into other stabbings that have taken place in the city to see if there are any connections.
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