Police officers introduced Wednesday that detectives have arrested a fourth suspect in a grotesque 2022 homicide spree fueled by an ongoing Lower East Side gang battle.
Richard Santiago, 32, was charged Wednesday with homicide, theft, grand larceny, arson and kidnapping.
After figuring out Santiago because the suspect, detectives positioned him on the Riverview Correctional Facility north of Ogdensburg. Santiago was serving 5 months of a five-year sentence for gang assault and weapons possession convictions in Manhattan.
Santiago was transferred to the upstate in October 2023, about 17 months after the May 16, 2022 murders of Nikki Huang and Jesse Parrilla. He was convicted of conspiracy and served three years in jail beginning in 2014, in accordance with courtroom information.
Police on Monday charged 26-year-old Terrence White with homicide, manslaughter, theft, grand larceny, kidnapping and arson.
Two folks die after automobile burns in Bronx
Théodore Parisienne/New York Daily News
Nikki Huang, 23, and Jesse Parrilla, 22, had been pronounced lifeless on the scene after firefighters extinguished a Honda Accord that was engulfed in flames on Shore Road. May 16, 2022 within the Bronx. (Theodore Parisienne of the New York Daily News)
Two different suspects have already been arrested within the brutal murders of childhood pals Juan, 23, a nail salon proprietor, and Parrilla, 22.
Santiago’s older brother, Stephen Santiago, 35, stays underneath investigation for the murders of Parrilla and Juan.
The badly burned physique was discovered inside a torched automobile on Shore Road close to Split Rock Golf Course in Pelham Bay, the Bronx.
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The suspect, Steven Santiago, 35, stays underneath investigation for the murders of Parrilla and Phan. (New York City Police Department)
Police mentioned Phan and Parrilla had been killed throughout an eight-hour interval of explosive violence between the long-warring Up the Hill and Down the Hill gangs.
The two rival crews function on the Lower East Side, their territories separated by a small “hill” within the Grand Street roadway close to Madison Street.
Fan labored behind the counter at Helong Kitchen, a family-owned Chinese restaurant on Grand Street. This restaurant is true on the border. Her household mentioned members of each gangs typically dined there, together with her alleged killer. Ms. Huang additionally ran her personal nail salon close to her.
The bloodshed started after Huang was pistol-whipped and robbed of his Louis Vuitton pockets throughout a theft. She turned to pals from the Up the Hill gang, however quickly after, on the night time of May fifteenth, somebody shot and killed Brandon Atkinson, 20, at Third Street, Avenues D and E. .
Sources have revealed that Atkinson is the brother of two members of Down the Hill.
Last Wednesday, Nicky Huang’s mom, Amy Cheung, appeared in Bronx Supreme Court together with Jesse Parrilla’s mom, Michelle Morales. (Theodore Parisienne, New York Daily News)
Prosecutors mentioned Down the Hill members focused Huang in retaliation and waited for her close to her Lower East Side residence. Investigators imagine that since Parrilla was hanging out with Hwang, he was merely collateral harm within the battle.
At round 1:20 a.m. on May 16, 2022, Parrilla drove Huang residence in her mom’s Honda Accord. Prosecutors mentioned gang members grabbed the person, pulled him into one other car and spirited him away.
After about 20 minutes, prosecutors mentioned, the group lured Phan out of the constructing, grabbed her and compelled her into the Honda Parrilla had left behind.
Prosecutors mentioned the suspects took the 2 pals to Shore Road close to Pelham Bay Park and shot Phan within the head and neck and Parrilla within the head and chest.
The gang then burned them to demise within the sedan, burning their our bodies so completely that Parrilla needed to be recognized by way of dental information.
Rahul Kuya, who prosecutors say offered his mom’s Honda Accord and was current when Jesse Parrilla and Nikki Huang had been kidnapped in 2022, was arrested final week. He is pictured throughout his arraignment inside Bronx Supreme Court on Wednesday. (Theodore Parisienne, New York Daily News)
Murder suspect Rahul Kaya, 24, was arrested in entrance of his Bronx residence on March 12, offered a getaway automobile, aided within the kidnapping of Phan and Parilla, and was taken to police. He has been charged with homicide, manslaughter, theft, kidnapping and arson. Bronx.
Jamel Sanders was arrested on March 7, 2023 on suspicion of serial homicide and stays on Rikers Island whereas he’s arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court.