Levi Aron Charged With Murder In Brutal Killing Of Leiby Kletzky

Both CNN and NY1 reported last night that Levi Aron has been charged with murder in the brutal killing of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky. As we reported yesterday, Wednesday morning NYPD Detectives had found the boy’s dismembered body in both Aron’s East 2nd Street apartment freezer in Kensington, as well as a dumpster on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope, after being brought there by the accused killer.

There was little doubt that Aron would be charged. He had confessed to the shocking murder, leading police to the Park Slope Auto Center at 651 Fourth Avenue, where part of the victim’s body was placed.  The suspect turned 35 yesterday while in police custody.

From CNN:

Police say the 35-year-old suspect made statements Wednesday implicating himself in the death of Leiby Kleztky, a member of the close-knit Orthodox Jewish community in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn who went missing Monday afternoon.

At a news conference earlier Wednesday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly identified the suspect as Levi Aron. Kelly said detectives found the remains in a freezer at the Aron’s third-floor attic apartment and in a trash bin more than two miles away, wrapped in a black plastic garbage bag inside a suitcase.

A neighbor of Aron’s quoted by NY1 described the alleged child murderer as a quiet, solitary man:

“My brother lives across the street with five kids. I can’t imagine that somebody on his block, who I grew up with, could do such a horrible thing,” said Shimi Kaplan, who knew Aron. “I’m, like, beyond words.”

NY1 is also reporting that the huge and, at times, diverse group of volunteers who searched for Leiby Kletzky Tuesday included Hasidim from the Rockland County town of Monsey in upstate New York’s Hudson Valley, as well as a group of 20 Pakistanis.