A 33-year-old man who was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend before she was ambushed and killed in front of her Manhattan home on Monday morning has been arrested, police said.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenney said Tuesday that Shirley Rodriguez, 29, had just left her Washington Heights apartment and was heading to work about 5:30 a.m. when she ran into two parked cars. It was announced that the culprit, who was hiding between the vehicles, had collided with the vehicle.
Mr Kenny said Rodriguez was stabbed in the torso, back, neck, arms and face in the vicious attack, which lasted more than a minute.
The woman desperately tried to fight off her attacker but was eventually chased away by two witnesses as others in the street called 911.
Despite his injuries, Rodriguez staggered back to the building’s lobby and rang the intercom for his father, who lived with him, police said.
“A father came to help his daughter. As she was dying, she told him, ‘Ty did this,'” Kenny said.
Rodriguez was taken to Harlem Hospital but could not be saved.
Kenney said her ex-boyfriend, Tiquan Jemmott, was caught hiding at his uncle’s house in the Bronx on Monday afternoon.
The police chief said two reports of domestic violence had been filed between Rodriguez and Jemmott, who broke up last week after two years of dating, but no arrests were made.
Charges against Jemmott are pending. He has one previous arrest for criminal mischief in November 2023 in Midtown.
