Police have identified a man whose body washed up on a Brooklyn beach with cement shoes on his feet.
The man was identified as Peter Martinez, also known as “Petey Crack,” a 28-year-old gang member with a number of outstanding debts, reported the Wall Street Journal and New York Times on Thursday.
He was reported missing since February. His body was found wrapped in a black plastic bag near rocks outside of Brooklyn’s Kingsborough Community College. His hands were tied behind his back and his feet had concrete stuck to them. He had not been stabbed or shot, officials added.
Officials identified him via a large tattoo on his back depicting the Virgin Mary holding a rose. He was a member of the Crips street gang who had “wronged someone,” they added.
His girlfriend said he “owed a lot of money,” the New York Daily News reported.
Martinez, police told the NY Daily News, had been arrested 31 times. He got two years in prison in 2011 after being convicted on identity theft charges in Long Island.
A concrete company owner told the Times that it could take anywhere from 12 hours to a day to get the concrete to harden around someone’s feet.
“They could make it wet and make the guy stand in it, or put his legs in and pour the cement around it,” said Paul Bartelotti, the owner of M&B Concrete in Brooklyn. “He could have been dead and they just stuck his feet in.”
