A Bronx man was beaten to death with a baseball bat Saturday in an apparent dispute over unpaid back rent – and now his landlord and half-brother are facing charges, cops and law enforcement sources said.
The 30-year-old victim, Kristopher Samaroo, walked out of his small brick home on Throgs Neck Expressway to get his mail at around 6 p.m., according to cops and police sources.
That’s when his landlord, identified as Omar Lamoni, 43, confronted him about the missing rent, police and sources said.
The encounter turned violent – and the landlord and his half-brother who tagged along, Edwin Nina, 39, allegedly beat Samaroo outside his house, sources said.
“[The landlord’s brother] goes straight to the trunk of his car, grabs a steel bat, runs up my steps to the front of my house, and starts wailing on my husband,” Samaroo’s fiancée, Brittney Shears told News 12.
“From there, my husband jumps on him. They fall down here onto the ground.”
The landlord then allegedly joined the struggle, according to Shears.
“They keep saying that we’re not paying rent at the moment, but that’s further from the truth,” said Shears. “[The landlord] accepts partial payment for rent because they keep cutting off my hot water.”
Samaroo made it back inside after the savage assault — in which a child was nearby — and his significant other called 911, sources said.
But he suffered fatal injuries.
Police found Samaroo with “trauma about the body,” an NYPD spokesperson said in an email.
Cops brought him to NYC Health and Hospitals/Jacobi, police said, but he didn’t survive.
Police have arrested two men — including the landlord — but no charges had been filed by Sunday evening, sources said.
Police arrested Lamoni and Nina, both of the Bronx, on Saturday. Lamoni was hit with second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child charges and Nina charged with second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, cops said.
More charges are possible as the investigation continues.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona.
