The police believe that the three men found shot dead in a 2012 BMW 750LI parked in Morningside Heights were drug dealers who were killed in retribution for ripping off other drug dealers. No bullet holes were found on the outside of the car, leading investigators to suspect the shooter had been inside the vehicle, which was recently reported stolen.
The bodies were discovered in the car at West 122nd and Claremont Avenue last night by people walking from the park—they initially thought the men might have been sleeping but then saw blood. The Post reports, "Victims Luis Catalan, 25, Heriberto Suazo, 26, and Amaury Rodriquez, 30 — all Manhattan residents — were described as marijuana traffickers with extensive criminal records, Police spokesman Paul Browne told reporters today. The three men were shot dead execution-style at around 5:30 p.m. by a lone gunman one police source described as a 'cool customer.'"
The victims were identified as Amaury Rodriguez, 31, Heriberto Suazo, 26, and Luis Catalan, 25. According to the Daily News, "Suazo was arrested in September in Yonkers with 12 pounds of hydroponic marijuana in a Mercedes and his apartment, along with a loaded .25 caliber gun and a loaded .380 semiautomatic weapon. Catalan had 10 arrests on his record, eight of them sealed. One was for marijuana possession, another for driving without a license... Rodriguez spent two years in state prison on a gun rap and was released in January 2011."
Sources also told the News, "The two front-seat victims were shot behind the ears and the man in the backseat was shot in the left temple — all execution-style." Additionally, police did not find shell casings.
Catalan's grieving mother told DNAinfo that he had a year-old son, "He was a good son. He was a good son... He used to call me 30 times a day, just to ask, 'How are you? How's the business? You never hear about a son telling his mother 24/7, 'I love you.' 'I love you.'"
