New York, NY – Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the suspect Levi Aron told detectives that after he picked the boy up in his car and took him to his apartment, he later “panicked” after hearing about the missing person reports, which is why he killed him.
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Some of the boy’s remains were found in Aron’s refrigerator, Kelly said.
“This was a horrendous crime,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a briefing Wednesday on the case.
Charges were pending, and information about an attorney for Aron, who turned 35 on Wednesday, was not immediately available.
Police got a tip about Aron based on surveillance video released late Tuesday night, and tracked him at his home in Kensington. Kelly acknowledged publicly the Shomrim Patrol for providing a license plate number that lead the to Levi.
When detectives arrived at Aron’s apartment, the door was open, Kelly said. They entered and asked where the boy was, and Aron nodded toward the kitchen, where police found carving knives covered with blood, along with human remains, in the refrigerator.
He then reportedly directed police to an area about 2 and a half miles away, near 20th Street and Fourth Avenue, where the rest of the boy’s remains were found in a black plastic bag inside a red suitcase that had been tossed in a Dumpster.
Aron lives in the third floor of his parents’ house on Avenue C. His parents live on the ground floor and another tenant lives on the second floor of the building.
Kelly said Aron lived in Memphis, Tenn. and moved back to Brooklyn two years ago. He said Aron has one summonses for public urination that he got last year.
“We have no record of this man being reported [as a pedophile],” said Kelly.
Cops said they do not know whether the boy was molested before being killed.
Investigators will be contacting authorities in Tennessee to piece together the details of his life, Kelly said.
I’m not sure if they are blaming whoever made the decision to release the videotape for the alleged murder’s panic decision to kill the bochur. In any event, that was not a Shomrim decision since they don’t control the street cameras
does anyone know the timeline from when the boy was taken to the murderers home till he saw the amount of search coverage
and killed the boy?
a sick dangerous individual, good hes off the street
what a stupid thing to say he killed him because people were looking for him!! Why did he take him to begin with????
PANIC IS NO EXCUSE FOR MURDER!!!
If he’s not a molester why would he even take the boy home with him in the first place?
Also why then couldn’t he just release him as soon as he saw the reports of the child missing? Did he think killing him will get him off the hook? Just mind boggling…..
I’m not expecting answers, just thinking out loud…
It is a double-edged sword.
The Shomrim and its actions, protections, and services are necessary and needed in the communities its many branches serve.
And, while I do understand the contention made by Commissioner Kelly, the swift actions of Shomrim neither excuse nor mitigate the unconscionable behavior of the suspect. The moment the suspect engaged with the intent to kidnap or deprive this young boy of his freedom, his actions violated the most fundamental of criminal laws. Moreover, given the nature of his actions, the quick and vocal community response is unsurprising and must not (and will not, in a court of law) depreciate the utter barbarity of his crime and his penal responsibility.
I laud the quick and ready response of Shomrim and others in this most unfortunate of situations, as well as its past and future achievements.
Thank you.
im sure he has done this before just never got kot
Don’t try to think what he was “thinking”. There is no thinking involved when killing a human.
How can we see the Kelly press conference?
I’m really confused. So he took the boy in his car – planning to do what with him?! Then when he hears the reports, panicks and kills him. What’s that going to do for him. Why didn’t he admit himself then, why does killing him help? It just makes him a murderer, when he would otherwise be charged for molestation, abduction… One big sicko who deserves a slow gruesome death in the town square.
there was something really wrong with this guy , he killed bc he panicked? a person dosent just kidnap someone for the fun of it
AND HE WAS INNOCENT WHY DID HE PANIC???? OBVIOUSLY HE IS GUILTY AND COMMITTED A CRIME THAT HE CAN NEVER DO TESHUVA FOR!!!
The Commissioner said this was a random encounter and the suspect had no relation to the family, meaning Levi did not work for the father of the child he murdered. So this was not a revenge murder as prior rumors speculated. If this was not a revenge kidnapping then what was it? The suspect is a sicko who is likely have lured boys into his apartment before. He lived in Tennessee in the past, so there has to be a dark history behind him there. You don’t just lure kids for no reason. No normal functioning person is capable of murdering a harmless, defenseless child out of “panic.” The excuse the suspect gives for murdering the kid is pathetic. He had it all planned out in his head. When you kill someone out of “panic” you don’t go to work the next day and act calm and normal. Only an experienced monster can hide his murderous emotions so well like that at work.
Again the officials speaking to the media need to relay the message to a kidnapper that it is best for him if he just releases the child.. then maybe they won’t panick ..
HASHEM YOU GAVE US: a “Eye” to see, a “Heart” to feel feelings… “Words” to carry away our Feelings! a “Brain” to control our Feelings should not over overshoot our Inner Strength of our soul!………..
But yet Hashem, when our “Eye” Can NOT continue to see…. our “Heart” Can NOT obtain any more, our “Brain” can NOT carry himself!!!…….. Our soul just Dissolves!!…. our Eyes are closed… can not see! our Heart can not continue! our Brain do not Function! Hashem PLEASE give us the Strength!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can never understand the mind of this sick demented individual. If you research other cases like this in America you will see that the killer often blames outside sources for causing him to murder the victim. While it is probably true that he did not set out that morning to kill this child, the fact is that when he saw the poor boy standing there lost his depravity kicked in and he decided to prey on the child. From that point on he did not plan it more than one step ahead. His mind probably started racing where the best place to take the child and what to do with him exactly. At that point he had no idea how or if he will release his victim. His base instincts took over and he let himself be lead by his twisted mind. The thrill that many child predators seek is the thrill of dominating a helpless victim. That domination can include molestation, but it could also include snuffing out the victim’s life. There is also an issue of shame the perpatrator sometimes feels, and the perp blames his poor victim for inflicting his shame. That, along with the realization that he stirred up a storm with his stupid impulse to snatch the kid combined to have him murder the poor child
Is there a link to view Kelly’s press conference somewhere?
Now this nut case is off the street lets give thanks to the Police for a great job in finding this nut case. Let all of us say tehellim for the family; for all the families of all
the people who were involved in looking for the boy, bringing food to the workers or
anybody else connected with this horrible horrible case. Now give thanks to Hashem Yisborach for having a family to go home to, Hug and kiss your kids tonight instead
of criticism. Please have rechumonus on the family and do not ask questions which
they prefer not to answer, whether the child was molested, how long between the kidnapping and the murder. Please have sensitivity for the family and friends and
don’t serve your curiosity by asking question which even if you had the answers
doesn’t help. I don’t know what to say except I feel so so terrible for such needless pain that was cause to the boy and his family. They will never never heal totally; so let us ask Hashem please please help them heal
Baruch Dayan Emes.. His person is clearly sick, but… I’ve heard that there are some “gedolim” who oppose reporting sex offenders in their communities. Hopefully this will serve as a wake up call. It’s sad that our leaders need one… The frum community needs to start voicing its problems, not ignoring them out of shame, misguided principles or fear of making a “chilul Hashem” (which in this case is happening anyway)
What’s to prevent this from happening again?
NOTHING!
The perp ‘panicked’ at being caught but didn’t panic
WHEN HE WANTED TO ATTACK THE BOY!
‘The 7 Noahide Laws,’ N O W !!
there is no 100% right way to go about these situations.
many times by releasing and showing videos it helps since someone can recognize the person and can be caught before they do any more harm or catch him before they flee to another state or country.
Unfortunately in this case it might ( we do not know for sure) has caused the guy to panic and erase the only real witness to the crime. If it would not have been solved so fast he could of have time to dump (sorry to use that word)the rest of the evidence
we must thank shomrin and the police and fbi for solving this crime so this guy cannot do more damage to other kids.
they should check cameras prior to his disappearance to see if this man wasnt around cheder earlier. it sounds like bad coincidence that he happened to wanna go alone that day, happened to get lost, &happened; to meet this creep.
also advice for kids if they ever need help to stop a jewish woman rather than man. not that women cant hurt, but its lot less likely to (nothing personal)
this bigger question is: how could something like this happen to the frum community at large? why would HKB”H send us such a message?
Until we found out what happened, we had no way to know the “right” to proceed – keep it quiet or tell the world. If he had gotten lost, or fell into a sewer somewhere, all the people out looking for him would have been a big help.
This is not about the times we live in. There have been sick predators living among civilized people since the beginning of time. But maybe we should rethink teaching our children not just to be careful of strangers, but that other Yidden you don’t know are also strangers.