NEW YORK—On Wednesday, the city began mourning an 8-year-old boy who never made it home on Monday. He was supposed to be making his first unsupervised trip home from summer camp. The body of Leiby Kletzky was found dismembered in a third-floor attic apartment yesterday.
Levi Aron, 35, was apprehended at 2:40 a.m. yesterday at his apartment and made statements that implicated him in the murder and dismemberment of the boy, according to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Aron convinced the boy, who got lost, to get into a brown Honda Accord and subsequently took him to his apartment and killed him. Police tracked down the suspect using surveillance video from a dentist’s office, where Aron had stopped to pay a bill as the boy waited for him outside. With the help of a receptionist and a dentist associated with the practice, the police found Aron’s name and address at 2 a.m. and arrested him 40 minutes later.
“As a father, I cannot begin to imagine the horrible heartbreak that Leiby Kletzky’s family is going through, and in speaking with their Rabbi today, I conveyed my deepest condolences. This killing was a stunning shock to our entire city, and I ask all New Yorkers, including the thousands of individuals who volunteered to search for little Leiby, to keep the Kletzky family in their thoughts and prayers,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a press statement.
Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes has assigned senior trial assistants from the Homicide Bureau and the Crimes Against Children Bureau to the case. The assistants have been directed to present the case to the Kings County Grand Jury, seeking the maximum penalty allowed by law.
“As the grandfather of 16 grandchildren, my heart goes out to the parents of Leiby, and I promise that I will ensure that we bring justice to his memory,” stated Hynes in a press statement.
Levi Aron, 35, was apprehended at 2:40 a.m. yesterday at his apartment and made statements that implicated him in the murder and dismemberment of the boy, according to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Aron convinced the boy, who got lost, to get into a brown Honda Accord and subsequently took him to his apartment and killed him. Police tracked down the suspect using surveillance video from a dentist’s office, where Aron had stopped to pay a bill as the boy waited for him outside. With the help of a receptionist and a dentist associated with the practice, the police found Aron’s name and address at 2 a.m. and arrested him 40 minutes later.
“As a father, I cannot begin to imagine the horrible heartbreak that Leiby Kletzky’s family is going through, and in speaking with their Rabbi today, I conveyed my deepest condolences. This killing was a stunning shock to our entire city, and I ask all New Yorkers, including the thousands of individuals who volunteered to search for little Leiby, to keep the Kletzky family in their thoughts and prayers,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a press statement.
Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes has assigned senior trial assistants from the Homicide Bureau and the Crimes Against Children Bureau to the case. The assistants have been directed to present the case to the Kings County Grand Jury, seeking the maximum penalty allowed by law.
“As the grandfather of 16 grandchildren, my heart goes out to the parents of Leiby, and I promise that I will ensure that we bring justice to his memory,” stated Hynes in a press statement.
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