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Woman Fatally Shot During Alleged Prostitution Robbery In Staten Island Motel
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 7, 2015
Modified Apr 7, 2015
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 7, 2015
Modified Apr 7, 2015
Share
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A 21-year-old woman was found fatally shot in the head at a Staten Island motel over the weekend, and authorities believe she was killed in a botched prostitution robbery.
According to the NYPD, 21-year-old Michele Hernandez-Vasquez, was found with a gunshot wound to her head at the Cosmopolitan Motel on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island, at around 3:20 a.m. on Saturday. Hernandez-Vasquez, a Bedford-Stuyvesant resident, succumbed to her wounds on Sunday afternoon.
Sources told the Staten Island Advance that the victim was working as a prostitute on the night of the shooting, and that a man posing as a customer arrived at a motel room where she was staying with her pimp. The customer allegedly pointed a gun to her head and sparked a fight between him and her pimp, who hit the customer in the head with a bottle of cognac. Another man who was likely working with the customer arrived at the motel room and started shooting; eventually, Hernandez-Vasquez was shot in the head.
Police are still looking for the suspects, who may also be connected to a robbery at a Staten Island Motor Lodge that occurred on at around 3 a.m. on Saturday, just before the fatal shooting. In that incident, two men—described as one about 6 feet tall and weighing 220 pounds, with a bald head, the other about 5 feet 10 inches tall at 180 pounds, with short hair, according to police—robbed two women in the early 20s at gunpoint, making off with cash, cellphones and paperwork.
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staten island
Rebecca Fishbein
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