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Accused Child Killer Levi Aron Given 8-Count Indictment
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 20, 2011
Modified Jul 21, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 20, 2011
Modified Jul 21, 2011
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Levi Aron, the man who confessed to killing and dismembering 8-year-old Hasidic boy Leiby Kletzky last week, was handed down an eight-count indictment—including two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of second-degree kidnapping—by a grand jury today. The indictment comes hours after the release of the official autopsy report, which revealed that Leiby had been drugged prior to his murder, with a mixture of muscle relaxants, anti-psychotics and painkillers, before he was smothered to death.
The parents of Leiby, Nachman and Esty Kletzk, emerged from their home today after sitting shiva for the past week. They marked the end of shiva by walking outside their Borough Park home this morning, surrounded by relatives. "It's a sign that you're escorting the soul to its resting place...Now the trying time starts. They're all alone. Now they've got to cope with it on their own," said Jack Meyer, of Misaskim, an organization that provides services to grieving families.
The family also announced that they had established a fund for donations, to help anguished families in crisis and need, something that the family says Leiby would have wanted to do had he been given more years of life. In addition, in the wake of Leiby's death, the NYPD met with local members of the Shomrim patrol group and the Hatzolah ambulance corps in Williamsburg Monday night to discuss issuing Operation Safe Child cards (state-issued identification cards) to an estimated 25,000 Hasidic kids in Brooklyn. "Last week's incident was 9/11 for the Jewish community. It changed the way we have to think about strangers," said Abe Friedman.
Tagged
dismemberment
indictment
leiby kletzky
levi aron
murder
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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