Stabbing suspect surrenders in his tuxedo, mom also arrested
FLATBUSH / MIDWOOD – A 17-year-old Flatbush teen dressed in a blue tuxedo, surrendered to police yesterday and was charged today with the murder of a Flatlands teen of the same age on Avenue M in Midwood on Monday, police said.
The stabbing suspect, David Lopez of 584 Rugby Road, walked into the 70th Precinct yesterday and surrendered to police. He was being charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Rohan Burke, 17, of Fillmore Avenue in Flatlands.
He was silent as he was walked out of the stationhouse this afternoon.
His mother, Barbara Galloza, 38, a mother of five, who lives in a Bronx homeless shelter with a 1-year-old child, was charged after she was handed the knife by her son, police said. She was being charged with tampering with Physical Evidence and hindering prosecution after allegedly hiding and then disposing of the murder weapon. The knife has not yet been recovered.
She was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal court today, (Wednesday morning) and ordered held on $35,000 bond or $20,000 cash.
The stabbing occurred on Monday, at approximately 4 p.m. when Lopez is accused of getting into an altercation with Burke at the corner of East 17 Street and Avenue M down the block from Edward R. Murrow High School. Burke then stumbled into a pizza parlor across the street while clutching his bloody chest and screaming for help, witnesses said.
Arriving officers from the 70th Precinct found Burke lying on the ground with a stab wound to the upper torso. Emergency Medical Service techs rushed Burke to Maimonides Hospital, where he later died.
Police say Galloza is seen on surveillance video taking the knife, but her attorney said in published reports that he told the court he has not “been provided with any evidence at all, including the video.”
The family said in published reports that Burke, who was a student at Lafayette High School in Bensonhurst, loved basketball and video games and had aspirations of becoming a lawyer.