Tyrese Devon Haspil, the executive assistant to tech CEO and Gokada investor Fahim Saleh has been arrested and charged with the gruesome murder of Saleh in New York.
Haspil was charged with second-degree murder, the New York Police Department said.
According to New York Post, Haspil, 21, was busted at 8:45 a.m. in the lobby of 172 Crosby St. in Manhattan, Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said during a brief news conference at 1 Police Plaza.
Haspil handled Saleh’s “finances and personal matters,” Harrison said.
“It is also believed that he owed the victim a significant amount of money,” he said.
Haspil allegedly attacked Saleh with a Taser at 1:45 p.m. Monday while Saleh was getting off an elevator that opened directly into his Manhattan apartment, Harrison said.
Cops were alerted to the slaying after a cousin found Saleh’s remains on Tuesday, Harrison said.
“Mr. Saleh’s cousin discovered his dismembered body in the middle of his apartment with his head, arms and legs amputated,” Harrison said,
Harrison said he wouldn’t “get into the cause of death” or answer any questions, and ended the briefing after just three minutes.
Detectives believe that Saleh had “discovered that the assistant had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from him,” providing a motive for murder.
The Times reported that Saleh didn’t report the alleged theft to the police but asked Haspil to repay the money.
The New York Post alleged the theft amounted to $100,000 and that Haspil allegedly “reneged” on the repayment plan.
“This was an act of charity that turned into an act of murder,” a source told The Post.
The Times also reported that investigators now believe Saleh was killed the day before the dismemberment (stunned with a Taser and then stabbed to death in the neck and torso) and the killer returned to the apartment to dispose of the body.
The killer also used a portable vacuum cleaner to try to clean the crime scene, according to the newspaper.
The grisly discovery came July 14 in Manhattan, when police found the “limbless, headless torso” of Saleh inside his luxurious condo, according to The New York Daily News.
Saleh was found decapitated and dismembered next to an electric saw in his luxury Manhattan condo on Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, a video may have captured a suit-wearing man entering an elevator with Saleh in the moments before he met with foul play.
Saleh’s arms and legs were cut off with “surgical precision,” according to the New York Post, and then placed in bags.
The New York Daily News quoted a source as describing the scene as “professional.”
