CHILLING: NYPD detectives examine the luxury sedan in which three men were found shot in the head outside a Columbia University building (map) yesterday. The victims were not students, cops said (Byron Smith)
Three men were found executed yesterday in a luxury car parked outside a Columbia University lecture hall.
Investigators believe the bloodshed was the result of a drug deal gone bad, police sources said.
The victims, all in their 20s and from Manhattan, were shot point blank in the head. Amaure Rodriguez, 31, lived in Washington Heights and had seven prior arrests, including pot possession and sales, as well as criminal possession of a weapon, law-enforcement sources said. Heriberto Suazo, 26, also lived in Washington Heights, and had been busted for assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Patrick Catalan, 25, also had a record of drug arrests, sources added.
The bodies were discovered at 6:30 p.m. in a 2009 BMW 750Li legally parked on a leafy stretch of West 122nd Street between Broadway and Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights, about six blocks from Columbia’s main campus.
Hours later, “blood was still dripping” from the dark gray car parked opposite the school’s Knox Hall, said a police source. The killer remains on the lam and the murder weapon has not been recovered.
“This was a classic triple assassination,” said another source. “The shooter had to be a cool customer to kill three men so close to him. He was quick and deadly.”
No 911 calls reporting a shooting were logged, and students attending a Knox Hall class, which dismissed at 7:30 p.m., told cops they heard no gunshots, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
“Shooting three people in a car is extremely loud and the shooter may have used a silencer,” said a police source. And “he may have plugged his ears.”
The slain men did not attend Columbia or the nearby Manhattan School of Music.
“It’s a relief [the victims] weren’t students,” said Ron Pangilinan, 27, a recent grad of Columbia’s MBA program.
Columbia Law School grad Ari Singzon, 28, said he had passed the block at 2:30 p.m. and all was quiet, with the BMW nowhere in sight.
“This is really scary,” he said.
The plates on the recently purchased sedan — which had heavily tinted windows and retails for about $88,000 — do not match its temporary registration. However, police used the vehicle-identification number to track the owner.
A man leaving Riverside Park spotted the three victims through the BMW’s windshield and flagged down a police car.
The two victims in the front seat were shot in the base of the skull, while the man in the rear was shot in the left temple.
It’s believed the gunman was seated behind the driver.
“Oh my God, he’s dead. Kill me, kill me. I hope it’s a lie,” wailed a woman claiming to be the pregnant girlfriend of one of the victims.
Detectives believe the car hadn’t been parked for more than one hour when the bodies were found. Police sources said they think the killer walked north up Broadway.
The BMW’s hood was still warm when police responded.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Kirstan Conley
