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Former Aide to Elderly Couple Charged in Fatal Bed-Stuy Home Invasion: NYPD

By Noah Hurowitz | October 24, 2017 7:19am

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — A Canarsie woman who once served as an aide to the 91-year-old man killed in a home-invasion robbery earlier this month was charged with his murder on Monday, police said.

Suzette Troutman, 45, was arrested on the street in Brooklyn and later charged with second-degree murder, assault and burglary stemming from the Oct. 11 robbery on Decatur Street in which robbers tied up Ethlin Thompson, 100, and her husband, Waldiman Thompson, triggering the man’s death by heart failure, officials said.

► READ MORE: Family Mourns 91-Year-Old Man Killed in Home Invasion as Suspect Arrested

Troutman, who used to perform routine chores for the couple, was behind the wheel of the black Nissan Rogue that the killers used to flee, prosecutors said. 

She had teamed up with her nephew, Dwayne Blackwood, 27, and another man, who hadn't been arrested as of Tuesday, to rob the elderly couple, police said.

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Dwayne Blackwood, 27, is led out of the 81st Precinct station house Friday evening after being charged with the murder of Waldiman Thompson. (DNAinfo/Noah Hurowitz)

A child was also in the getaway vehicle, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. 

Blackwood was arrested Friday and charged with murder, assault and burglary, officials said. He's due back in court on Thursday, records show.

The deadly encounter began about 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, when Blackwood and the other man burst into the Thompsons’ ground-floor apartment on Decatur Street between Marcus Garvey Boulevard and Lewis Avenue, police said. 

The pair tied up Ethlin Thompson with a belt and bound her husband with an electrical cord, before throwing a sheet over his head, prosecutors said.

Blackwood and his accomplice made off with a lockbox containing about $5,000 in cash and a bag full of other loot, but were recorded coming and going on surveillance cameras, according to police.

They're also captured on surveillance footage unloading the goods outside Blackwood's building, prosecutors said. 

Troutman, who has no prior arrests, was ordered held without bail at her arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court. 

Her lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.