A 40-year-old man and a teenager were indicted on murder and a slew of other charges in a gruesome Bronx killing in which the victim was dismembered, put in a shopping cart and then set on fire, according to the district attorney.
The charred remains of Lutalo Henderson were found in the shopping cart under the Oak Street Bridge on Aug. 5, in Yonkers near the Mount Vernon border, police said. Firefighters had been called about a fire under the bridge, but as soon as they extinguished the flames, they saw the body.
An investigation has found that the victim in the case was killed at a home in the Bronx, the same place where more severed body parts linked to the case were found.
Cops executing a search warrant at a home on Rogers Place in the Longwood neighborhood recovered human remains in the kitchen, with human hands found in a pot and feet in the freezer, law enforcement sources said. A gun and drug paraphernalia were recovered in a bedroom.
The suspects, Muhammad Aadil and 18-year-old Ronei Harris, are accused of killing the 46-year-old Henderson some time between July 27 and Aug. 5, according to an investigation. It occurred inside the home Aadil and Henderson shared.
After killing him, Aadil and Harris cut off Henderson’s hands and legs below the knee, and also removed his jaw, an investigation found. The torso was wrapped in trash bags and put in a shopping cart the pair took to Yonkers on Metro-North, according to the investigation.
A high-ranking NYPD official previously told NBC New York that police had video of a man rolling a shopping cart onto a Metro-North train in the Bronx, which appeared to be the same shopping cart later found on fire.
Aadil was faces second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, concealment of a human corpse, gun possession and other drug charges, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said Tuesday. Police later said Harris would face the same charges.
“The defendants allegedly killed and mutilated a man, and then took some remains, in a shopping cart, on a Metro North train to Yonkers where they burned the cart. This was brutal disregard for a human being,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark.
Aadil was arraigned Monday in the Bronx and was remanded. His next court hearing is scheduled for Dec. 19. Harris is set to be arraigned at a later date, the DA’s office said.
Attorney information for Aadil and Harris was not immediately available.