Police in New York have arrested a man they say is a serial killer who has targeted shopowners in Brooklyn.
"NYPD homicide detectives today arrested Salvatore E. Perrone of Staten Island in the shooting deaths of three Brooklyn merchants after he made statements implicating himself, and after the .22-caliber rifle he used in the slayings was recovered from his duffel bag and subjected to ballistic tests," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Police say Perrone targeted Middle-Eastern men over 50 years old. The three murder locations also form an equilateral triangle 4 miles on a side, and the addresses all contain the number 8.
The first victim was Mohamed Gebeli, a Muslim from Egypt, who was shot in the neck on July 6 inside Valentino Fashion in Bay Ridge.
The second victim was killed a month later, on Aug. 2.Isaac Kadare, a Jewish man from Egypt was killed at Amazing 99 Cent Deal in Bensonhurst.
On Nov. 16, the third victim, Rahmatollah Vahidipour, an Iranian, was shot three times in the head at She She Boutique on Flatbush Ave. with the same gun used to kill Kadare.
Witnesses identified Perrone as the man who had approached another shopkeeper in the neighborhood, in what police say was an aborted attempt to kill a fourth time.
Perrone matched the description of a man carrying a duffel bag in security camera videos at several of the murders.
"When crime scene detectives searched the bag early this morning, they found the carbine with a sawed-off stock, and a combination laser-flashlight attached to its barrel with duct tape and two thick, pink rubber bands," Kelly said.
"It had a single, live round in the chamber. They also recovered a box of 22-caliber long-rifle ammunition, an empty magazine and a 12-inch kitchen knife with dried blood on it. Detectives also found two Buck folding knives, each with seven-inch blades."
"Perrone was recognized yesterday at a pharmacy in Bay Ridge, and voluntarily agreed to accompany responding officers to the station house," Kelly continued.
"Detectives obtained a warrant to search Perrone's duffel bag, which was found at his girlfriend's apartment. It was the same bag that Perrone was seen carrying in videotaped images of him in the vicinity of the most recent homicide."
No motive has been released. Prosecutors plan to charge the 63-year-old Perrone with first and second-degree murder for each of the three victims.
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