Body parts found outside Brooklyn building, police say
By Alecia Reid
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NEW YORK (WCBS) — Body parts were found outside a Brooklyn building Friday.
Officials say construction workers were standing by the garbage outside a building on East 21st Street near Ditmas Avenue in Flatbush when they smelled something foul and called police.
When officers arrived, police said they found a man’s head and torso.
Police have not yet identified the victim or a suspect.
An NYPD officer was seen guarding the hallway on the sixth floor of the building as the department waits for a search warrant to enter an apartment.
Neighbors believe the victim is a man who lived on the sixth floor of the building with his partner.
“The apartment was in the short one’s name, and the tall one was always, like, violent with the short one,” neighbor Eduardo Lemus said.
Neighbors told CBS News New York they had heard the couple fighting, along with banging on the walls.
“They used to punch in my wall in the other side,” neighbor Julio Hernandez said.
“The last couple days, it was heated,” neighbor Phyllis Larrier said. “I think the other young man was not letting him in, wouldn’t let him, because he was banging on the door.”
Neighbors said they saw signs of abuse and described the victim as timid.
“He was shy. He wasn’t like this [other] one, bold and bombastic,” a neighbor named Marcia said.
According to neighbors, a few days ago, the noise from the couple’s apartment stopped and a pungent smell started brewing in the hallway.
“Last night when we came in … he was burning incense. That’s the first time I heard there was incense was burning in the hallway. That’s unusual,” Larrier said.
There are cameras throughout the building, including one on the sixth floor facing the elevator.
The violence has shaken the community.
“It’s crazy to think somebody would just, you know, do it and just leave the person right there,” Lemus said.
“Shocking. Very shocking. Because I’ve lived here since 2004, and we’ve never had an incident of this magnitude in this block,” neighbor Thomas Williams said.
Police have not released further details at this time.
The investigation is ongoing.
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