Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Suspect in First Murder of 2013 Caught in Ohio, Police Say

By Patrick Wall | January 11, 2013 7:35pm

NEW YORK — The man suspected of committing New York City’s first murder of 2013 was nabbed in an Ohio rescue mission Friday morning, according to police there.

Raymond Mayrant, 25, is accused of shooting his girlfriend, Diamond Dunn, in the face and her mother, Elzina Brown, in the chest after an altercation Jan. 3 at the Monroe Houses in Soundview, according to police.

Dunn, 22, survived, but Brown, a 59-year-old school crossing guard, was killed.

On Friday, police in Warren, a small northeast Ohio city about 50 miles south of Cleveland, followed a tip from the NYPD that led them to the Warren Family Mission, where they arrested Mayrant, officials said.

NBC New York first reported the arrest.

Warren police and federal marshals found Mayrant at the shelter along with a car sporting Maine license plates that cops say was stolen, said Lt. Jeffrey Cole of the Warren Police Department.

Mayrant, who had not yet been charged as of Friday afternoon, was being held at the Trumbull County jail, Cole added.

The NYPD did not immediately confirm Mayrant's arrest.

The Bronx man lived in University Heights and had a child with Dunn, sources said. He had been on the run since last week’s shooting.

Mayrant checked into the Christian rescue mission in Ohio late Wednesday, according to Michelle Beauchene, the nonprofit’s director of development and public relations.

Mayrant was quiet and “did what he was supposed to,” so he didn’t arouse any suspicions, Beauchene said.

But Friday morning, the shelter received a call from a police officer.

“He just said they were working on a federal investigation and they needed our cooperation,” Beauchene said, adding that the arrest at about 11 a.m. “went very smooth.”

Last week, neighbors recalled Brown as a caring woman who looked after other tenants’ children.

"This should have never happened to her," said DJ Cheeks, a neighbor. "She was just the nicest person."

"She was like a nanny to a lot of the children in the building," added another neighbor, who asked not to be identified. "It's sad, because we lost someone who everyone trusted, and those people don't come along all that often."