By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- A man accused of going on a shooting spree that claimed the lives of four immigrants, allegedly because he was angry about Sept. 11, was put on suicide watch Monday after his arraignment on murder charges.
Larme Price, 30, was arrested after walking into a police station Friday and offering to help track down the suspect. Within a day, police said they obtained Price’s confession and his stated motivation: exacting revenge for the terrorist attacks.
Price told authorities he intended to target people of Middle Eastern descent when he fatally shot four immigrants in convenience stores and an all-night laundry in February and March, police said.
He was charged with four counts of murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court. He was placed on suicide watch at the request of his attorney, John Youngblood.
“Our first concern is for Mr. Price’s physical well-being,” Youngblood told reporters. The defendant’s relatives refused to comment as they left the courthouse.
Price was ordered held without bail until his next court date on April 11.
In interviews with police, Price described three of the victims -- born in Guyana, India and Yemen -- as “Arabs,” an investigator said. The fourth victim, Russian-born laundry manager Albert Kotlyar, was possibly targeted because he asked the suspect to leave, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
The string of killings began Feb. 8 with the shooting of John Freddy, a Guyana native working at a supermarket in the Ozone Park section of Queens. Surveillance camera caught a man in a dark coat, baseball cap and hooded sweatshirt walking over to Freddy and shooting him behind the ear.
About two hours later, Indian immigrant Sukhjit Khajala was fatally shot once in the face with the same .40-caliber revolver used in Freddy’s killing. Police said $169 was taken from the cash register by a man who shot Khajala after a brief conversation, then walked away slowly.
Kotlyar was shot March 10.
The last victim, Mohammed Ali Nassir, 54, was shot while sitting near the door of the Stop II Food Market on March 20. Another employee was seriously wounded.
Police asserted that Larme, who has two children and a pregnant girlfriend, apparently began having second thoughts about the shootings after reading in the Bible the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”
“He was reading the Bible and he wanted to help the police end this,” said Deputy Inspector Vito Spano, who headed the police task force. “He was not happy with what he was doing.”
Price’s mother, Leatha Price, told reporters that her son struggled with drug abuse and had mental problems that were exacerbated by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She said she tried unsuccessfully to have him admitted to Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn.
Woodhull records reportedly show that he was treated at the hospital’s Non-Urgent Care Center on March 9, and released.
Police said they matched a pistol, recovered from the home of Price’s girlfriend, to the shooting of Aldailam and Nassir. They also recovered a baseball cap, hooded sweatshirt and jacket they believe Price wore during the shootings.
Price, who made a living selling stolen college textbooks, has a criminal record dating to 1989 that includes arrests for robbery, assault and criminal weapons possession.