A Haitian immigrant allegedly killed two of his roommates at a Hudson Valley apartment complex while awaiting a federal deportation hearing.
Kenol Baptiste, 30, was charged Monday with stabbing two men in and around an apartment complex in Middletown, New York.
Police arrived at Ruth Court’s apartment after receiving a report of a stabbing.
Officers found one man dead inside the unit and another man seriously injured lying on the sidewalk outside. In the Times Herald Record.
The second victim was taken to nearby Garnet Health Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries sustained during surgery.
A police K-9 team arrested Baptiste in a wooded area near his apartment shortly after the stabbing.
Baptiste was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter, both felonies, and was also charged with misdemeanor possession of a weapon.
A motive for the killing was not immediately released.
The alleged killer and the two victims, who are also Haitian and speak Creole, reportedly knew each other and had been living together in an apartment for less than a year.
“Following up with residents in the area, we learned that this group moved there approximately a year ago,” said Middletown Police Chief John Ewanciu. He told Mid-Hudson News.
The victim’s name was not released pending notification of family members.
Local officials are asking how Mr. Baptiste got into the country in the first place.
Iwanciu said Baptiste entered the United States about eight months ago, and police are “continuing to track him when, where and how.”
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said Baptiste was awaiting federal immigration processing at the time of the stabbing.
Neuhaus also blamed the Biden administration for the brutal deaths.
“This is a failure at every level of the federal government,” Neuhaus said. News12 Hudson Valley. “This was one of the most brutal murders some law enforcement agencies have ever witnessed,” he added.
Baptiste is being held in the Orange County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
Last spring, Neuhaus filed multiple lawsuits against Mayor Eric Adams after several buses carrying migrants were transported from New York City to hotels in Orange County.
County executive. Adams claimed he placed 82 immigrants, all single men, in a hotel near Newburgh in May 2023 to alleviate the stress of the city’s immigration crisis.
As the men moved from Manhattan, the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham reportedly kicked the U.S. veterans out of the area where they were living.
In the Hudson Valley region, the Biden administration was also accepting migrants from secret late-night flights to Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, after previously sending migrants to Westchester County Airport, the newspaper reported.
