Landlord charged with murder in deaths of three in Queens

A landlord was arrested Tuesday and charged with murdering his tenants after three people were found stabbed to death in the bedrooms of a Queens home.

The man, David Daniel, 54, turned himself in at a police station Tuesday morning and confessed, said Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives for the New York City Police Department. Mr Daniel told police that two of the victims were his tenants and that they had not paid the rent. The third victim was Mr. Daniel’s girlfriend, police said.

Officers arrived at the home in the St. Albans neighborhood just after 7 a.m., where they found two of the victims in a basement bedroom and the third in an upstairs bedroom, police said. Officers found a knife at the scene.

Mr Daniel was “very businesslike” when he approached officers at the police station, Chief Kenny said. He was charged with murder and is in custody

The light green house where the murders took place is located on a dead-end street in a quiet neighborhood with single- and multi-family homes. On Tuesday afternoon, the neighbors kept the blinds closed and the curtains closed.

Shortly after 1:30 p.m., officials wearing hazmat suits began removing body bags from the home and loading them into a van.

Alfred Felder, 32, lives nearby and said he was shocked when he heard about the stabbings. He said he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

“It hurts to see something like that, especially up close,” Mr. Felder said. He added that he was “glad it was an isolated event, but at the same time you never want something like that to happen.”

Mr Felder said he had seen the residents of the house nearby and never thought anything was wrong.

Nelimi Roopnarine, 42, who also lives nearby, said he heard sirens on Tuesday morning. It was “very shocking to wake up to something like that,” she said.

Kitty Bennett research contributed.