Yesterday, a Brooklyn landlord fatally shot a man in the midst of a heated dispute regarding $100 in rent money owed. 63-year-old Philip Estevez killed 51-year-old Luis Martinez as he defended his sister, Anna Rodriguez, and her two children. Police sources told the New York Post that Estevez began "pummeling" Rodriguez when he didn't receive his money immediately.
Estevez lives in the same house as his tenants.
Rodriguez was able to escape Estevez along with her children, 12-year-old Elian Espinal and 10-year-old Eliana Espinal. Martinez stepped up to confront Estevez, but the older man pulled out a .22 caliber revolver and shot him in a fit of rage. He made sure that Martinez was dead by firing "execution-style" shots into his chest and head.
He went upstairs and found Rodriguez and her children, reportedly pulling the trigger multiple times, but his weapon did not discharge. That's when Elian jumped "more than 20 feet out the window" and ran three blocks to the 75th Precinct to inform police that someone was trying to kill his mother.
Police arrived to find Estevez with the weapon, and they promptly arrested him. According to neighbors, mounting tension led to this explosion of violence. “It is over money. [They] did not pay [their] rent," Bazel Abdullah said.
22-year-old Jose Torres, the owner of a bodega directly across the street from the building, called Estevez "a very peaceful man."
[via NY Post]
