A 19-year-old who allegedly decapitated his stepfather with a hacksaw faces murder charges in the gruesome killing, police sources have said.
Damien Hurstel was wearing a Tyvek suit and still covered in blood as he was wheeled out of the police station in Staten Island on a gurney Tuesday, according to the New York Post. He is expected to be charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of a 45-year-old man.
The victim, who sources say was a retired New York City sanitation worker, was found dead around 4:30 p.m. Monday in a bathtub inside a home on Cary Avenue in the West Brighton section of Staten Island. He had multiple stab wounds to the head and neck. His head had been removed with a hacksaw, police sources told PIX11 News.
Hurstel, who was taken into custody the same day, reportedly has a history of mental illness and is believed to be schizophrenic, according to a property manager who spoke to the local news.
Police told ABC7 that the suspect’s 16-year-old sister arrived home from school to the grisly scene. She found blood in several rooms throughout the house before discovering the victim’s body in the bathtub.
The suspect allegedly told his sister that he “did something bad,” sources told The New York Post.
According to the property manager, the victim was a retired employee of New York’s Department of Sanitation. He was forced to go on disability due to severe vision loss, a friend of the victim told The Post.
Two of the victims’ friends, Louis Ortiz, 47, and Donna Ortiz, 46, told The Post they saw the news of the killing and rushed to his home.
“It’s a crime scene. It’s crazy,” Louis said. “I can’t even believe I was looking at my friend’s house on the TV screen. And I had to get up and run over here because I didn’t want to believe that it was true until I saw it with my eyes.”
“This didn’t deserve to happen to him,” Donna added. “He was just about to retire and live his life as best as he could.”
Louis described the suspect as “sweet as pie” and frequently played video games with Donna’s stepson.
Both Louis and Donna, who said she used to work at a psych center, called out the city for how to handle people with mental health issues.
“The boy was always going through stuff in school. Mental health issues,” Louis said. “The city got to do more with mental health.”
“He’d be alive right now if the city dealt with mental health,” Donna added about their friend.
