Suspect in fatal stabbing of NYPD cop’s aunt arrested in Queens

By Daniel Prendergast, Kevin Sheehan, Reuven Fenton and Bruce Golding

September 4, 2016 | 8:28am


A Colombian immigrant has been busted in the fatal stabbing of a Muslim woman in Queens — and his motive was robbery, not religious hatred, cops said Sunday.


Yonatan Galvez Marin, who lives about a block from the crime scene, was nabbed by cops who were canvassing the area Saturday evening and recognized him from surveillance video.


Relatives and friends of the victim, Nazma Khanam — the aunt of an NYPD cop — had speculated that she was targeted because she wore traditional clothing associated with her native Bangladesh.


Police sources said fliers showing Marin’s image spurred tips that he had expressed hostility toward other ethnicities.


But Marin, who doesn’t speak English, told cops he killed the 60-year-old retired teacher during a botched holdup — and investigators believe it’s true, sources said.


Still, Marin’s videotaped statements to police didn’t stop about two dozen members of the local Bangladeshi community from protesting racial hatred Sunday outside Queens Criminal Court ahead of his arraignment on murder and other charges.


They chanted, “What is it? Hate crime! What do we want? Justice!”
Modal TriggerYonatan Galvez-MarinPhoto: WABC-TV News Khanam was killed in Jamaica Hills at around 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, less than three weeks after animam and his aide were fatally shot execution-style in Ozone Park, allegedly by Brooklyn resident Oscar Morel, 35.


Cops still don’t know the motive for the double killing, but have said it is not believed to be a hate crime, despite community outcry.


The NYPD would not say if Marin was in the country legally, citing policies tied to the Big Apple’s status as a “sanctuary city.”


Marin did not enter a plea or seek bail during his arraignment. He was ordered locked up pending another court appearance Friday.


After court, Khanam’s nephew, NYPD cop Humayun Kabir, wept while discussing her death, but refused to say if he thought it was motivated by anti-Muslim bias.


“This brutal attack on her in her neighborhood, it just doesn’t make sense to me,” Kabir, 35, said.
“How could a human being ask someone for money and then the very next second, when they don’t get it, [he] plunges a knife into her chest and kills her?”


He later described telling his family in Bangledesh how his aunt’s alleged killer had been brought to justice on Saturday.


“They were crying hysterically,” Kabir said, recalling how Khabam’s eldest child, Nazmul Alam Khan, 40, was happy about the arrest, but still looking for answers.


“Thank God, the animal who killed my mother got arrested,” Kabir remembered him saying. “I just want to know why he did it.”


Meanwhile, about 100 protesters gathered near the suspect’s home on Normal Road, with some carrying hand-lettered signs saying, “End hate — make our streets safe again” and “All life matter.”
Mohammad Shahajhan, 61, who said he was Marin’s landlord, said the suspect “moved in a few months ago. I never spoke to him. He’s a quiet guy. I thought he was a student . . . I have no idea why he would kill a woman so close to home. For money? It makes no sense,” he said.


Marin’s Facebook page identifies him as the “chief operating officer” of a defunct, marijuana-related Web site in Poland.

http://nypost.com/2016/09/04/suspect...ypd-cops-aunt/


Khanam was buried in Shariatpur, Bangladesh, on Sunday.
Additional reporting by Reuven Fenton, Shawn Cohen and Georgett Roberts