A bizarre home invasion where the victims were held hostage and tortured in a Throggs Neck apartment building has led to one arrest. Police continue to search for two other suspects.
The robbery happened at about 4:30 a.m. at 835 Throgs Neck Expressway on Thursday, November 5. Police were called to a second floor apartment shortly the suspects fled. The apartment is rented to Solano Santiago.
Pedro Diaz, Leonadro Larrea, and Erica Mejia, as well as Santiago, were tortured before turning over their valuables. The attack started in the building’s basement and then moved to apartment 2B.
“Someone broke into the building and was waiting in the lobby,” said Marco Marciano, owner of the building. “They were taken to the basement of the building, and then brought up to the second floor.”
Kawan Hernandez, 32, was collared driving Diaz’ Acura. He was arrested in the 52nd Precinct after a car chase that ended at 9:57 a.m. that morning.
According to the police report, the three men were held in the basement of the building, as the robbers demanded money. The victims were attacked and told that if they looked at the faces of their assailants, they would die. They were beaten with a gun and received multiple lacerations to the backs of their heads.
Diaz, Larrea, and Santiago were ushered upstairs. Mejia was already in the apartment. Everyone was told to strip down to his or her underwear. The eyes of each victim were duck-taped shut and their arms and legs were bound with tape, string and wire.
The victims’ heads were dunked and held under water in a bathtub, and each was threatened with drowning if they did not turn up more loot. One suspect held a knife over an open flame, and then burned the chest of one of the victims, according to the report.
The suspects fled the scene with over $3,800 in cash, jewelry, car keys, cell phones, clothing, and a safe’s contents.
Captain Dimitrios Roumeliotis of the 45th Precinct said that the police acted swiftly.
“We got there as soon as the call came over, and they put it out [over the radio] with out any delay,” Roumeliotis said at a November 5 45th Precinct Council meeting. “We caught one of the individuals involved.”
Hernandez has been charged with 23 felonies, including Robbery 1, Robbery 2, Burglary 2, and Reckless Endangerment.
