NEW YORK (AP) — Multiple people have been fatally poisoned with narcotics in what investigators say were schemes by criminal crews to incapacitate and rob people at Latest York City bars and nightclubs.
The killings — a minimum of five, in accordance with police — stretch back months and look like the work of various crews, operating independently from one another but using similar tactics, police and prosecutors said Thursday.
Men surreptitiously slip revelers dangerous levels of medicine to knock them out, then take their wallets and phones, sometimes using their digital banking info to empty their accounts.
In March, Nurbu Sherpa, a 29-year-old chef, was found dead on the sidewalk after leaving a bar where he had been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
In April, Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social employee, died in a taxi after leaving a Manhattan bar with a gaggle of men. Later, relatives discovered a few of his savings had been stolen.
Political Cartoons
In May, John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant visiting from Washington D.C., was found dead of an apparent drug overdose within the townhouse where he was staying. Surveillance video showed him leaving a preferred club being propped up by a gaggle of men. Money was also taken from his checking account.
Other men have come forward with stories about being drugged by strangers and waking up to search out money gone.
Most of the crimes remain unsolved, however the Manhattan district attorney on Thursday announced that one suspect, Kenwood Allen, of the Bronx, had been charged with murder in Sherpa’s death and within the killing of Ardijan Berisha, 26.
Berisha, of South Salem, Latest York, and a friend passed out on the sidewalk in July after drinking at a bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Allen drugged each of his victims with with fentanyl, prosecutors said, then robbed them. He’s accused in three other instances where victims survived.
Allen’s sister told the Every day News her brother is innocent.
“My brother just isn’t a murderer,” said Lauren Allen, 39. “My brother has at all times taken care of his family, his mother and his sisters. He’s not in no gang. He’s not in some crew going around drugging and robbing people. That’s just not true, that’s ridiculous.”
No one has been charged in the opposite killings, that are still under investigation.
“No one should should worry that an evening out at a Manhattan bar with friends could end in tragedy,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
At a news conference Thursday, Latest York Police Department Lt. Det. Dave Leonardi said a few of the victims got a mixture of medicine including lidocaine, fentanyl and cocaine, with lidocaine being the substance that actually incapacitated people.
The deaths of Ramirez and Umberger prompted concern that gay men were being targeted. Each died after leaving Manhattan LGBTQ bars. Some victims and their relatives have complained that the crimes weren’t treated with more urgency by police.
Umberger’s mother, Linda Clary of Dawsonville, Georgia, said that after hearing about Ramirez’s death and stories from others, she felt frustrated by authorities’ response.
“There have been enough cases reported that NYPD must have sounded the warning bells to say this is happening, people have to be careful, but they didn’t,” she said.
NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said robberies have occurred beyond the gay community.
“We don’t particularly think they’re targeting gay members,” he said. “This is predicated solely on monetary gain.”
Still, unease about possible targeting stays especially in an environment when an anti-LGBTQ atmosphere has been felt across the country, said Beverly Tillary, executive director of the Latest York City Anti-Violence Project, a company that advocates for LGBTQ communities.
“There’s some sense of being on edge,” she said, “and never knowing what might occur next when it comes to attacks on our community.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material is probably not published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.