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Horrific: Arrest made in gruesome Brooklyn elevator murder
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
December 19th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
December 19th, 2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
An arrest has been made in the gruesome elevator murder of an elderly
Brooklyn woman. Forty-seven-year-old Jerome Isaac has been arrested on
charges of first and second degree murder. Isaac told police that
73-year-old Deloris Gillespie owed him $2,000 for work her performed.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne says Isaac turned himself in to
police overnight or early Sunday morning.
A preliminary investigation showed the suspect was standing outside the elevator on the fifth floor and attacked the woman as she was attempting to exit, authorities said. The incident was caught on surveillance cameras inside and outside the elevator, and police have the videotapes.
Authorities believe Isaac initially sprayed the woman with a flammable liquid, presumably gasoline, and continued to spray her as he followed her back into the elevator, Browne said.
Then, using "one of those long lighters that you would use for a grill, he lit a Molotov cocktail and used the burning leg on top of that to ignite her body," Browne said.
The suspect then stepped out of the elevator, threw the Molotov cocktail inside, then returned again to spray more liquid on the woman as she burned, he said. "This is as bad as it gets," Browne says.
Authorities responding to a 911 call of a fire found the woman's body inside the elevator. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the police statement.
Residents say they heard screams and saw smoke and realized a woman was on fire inside the elevator.
"Myself and someone from the sixth floor went down knocking to get people out. Knocking on doors telling people 'There's a fire, get out, get out," one resident said.
Neighbor Carmen Martinez told the station the victim had lived in the building since the 1980s.
"She used to give toys and gifts to kids all the time," Martinez told the station.
"From everything we hear ... she was just this sweet 73-year-old woman," Browne said.
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