Guyanese man charged in NY with killing 92-year-old woman
A Guyanese man accused of murdering a beloved 92-year-old Queens “cat lady” told cops he gets “uncontrollable urges” — and killed her because of pent-up anger at his family, law-enforcement sources told The New York Post on Friday.
According to the newspaper report Reeaz Khan, 21, confessed to the slaying of elderly Maria Fuertes after authorities picked him up Thursday night and took him to the 106th Precinct, where he was arrested and hit with murder and sex abuse charges on Friday, sources said.
Khan told cops that he “was abused his whole life” and upset that he had to move to the US with his family from Guyana a few years ago, a source said, according to the New York Post.
“He was angry at his father and [claimed] his brothers never liked him,” the source said. “He gets uncontrollable urges, but he never acted out on it. This was the first time.”
Fuertes, who sources say was strangled, was found on the sidewalk at Liberty Avenue and 127th Street in Richmond Hill, just a block from her home, around midnight Monday.
Medics rushed the woman to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, but she could not be saved.
“Ms. Fuertes is a defenseless, 92-year-old woman, minding her own business, walking down the street when she was brutally attacked,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison told reporters Friday, according to the report.
Khan followed her from Liberty Avenue onto 127th Street, where he came up behind her, threw her to the ground and attacked and sexually assaulted her, police said.
“There was some sort of physical contact between the two … causing both of them to fall to the ground where they landed behind a parked car,” Deputy Chief of Detective Bureau Queens South Joseph Kenny stated.
The attack was partially captured on surveillance footage, but Kenny said, “The perpetrator and the victim were out of view for approximately 4 to 5 minutes” before Khan reappeared and ran.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the victim was found “with her clothes pulled above her waist and near death”.
Fuertes was out in the late night hour picking up bottles from the street as part of her usual routine, according to sources.
Harrison said that Fuertes suffered “contusions around the neck” and “some injuries around her private area.”
The report said that investigators tracked Khan to his home about a half mile from the scene of the crime using surveillance footage and tips from the community.
Khan’s brother also called police after the NYPD released surveillance footage of a man wanted in the murder to say that his brother is the one shown in the video, according to sources.
As Khan was led out of the 106th Precinct station house in handcuffs on Friday, he proclaimed his innocence.
“No, I did not,” Khan, donning a gray hoodie and sweatpants, responded after he was asked by a reporter whether he killed Fuertes.
He faces 25 years to life behind bars if convicted of the crime.
The report said that Khan was previously arrested on a charge of assault on Nov. 26 for allegedly slicing his father with a broken ceramic mug inside his Queens home, police said.
The father suffered a laceration to his chest and arm and was hospitalized with minor injuries.
