Just before midnight last Saturday night, police responded to a call from the Crown Motor Inn, in the Queens neighborhood of Elmhurst. Joseph Benzinger, a 54-year-old white male from Middle Village, New York, was on the floor of a hotel room. A shirt was wrapped around his neck. He was dead.

Early today, Lleuyel Garcia, a 23-year-old Hispanic male from Inwood, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and one count of robbery. According to the New York Daily News, Garcia allegedly took Benzinger's wallet and cell phone from the scene of the crime.

Benzinger and Garcia were lovers, authorities are saying, and had a sexual relationship prior to the 54-year-old's death.

Benzinger was the third gay man found strangled to death since January 26. The two previous murders are unsolved. Authorities, however, tell the Voice that the three murders are unrelated.

Nemo was able to shut down power, the Long Island Expressway and most of the news over the weekend. But, somehow, it apparently couldn't prevent the unfortunate plague of crime in New York City.

The first shooting victim came Friday night during the apex of the snowstorm. At a baby shower up on East 165th Street, a 20-year-old man was fatally shot just after midnight as the blizzard began to weather down on the City. Also, the man's cousin was shot but is currently in critical condition. There's video surveillance that shows the attackers but the police told the New York Post that no one has been charged yet with the shootings.

The violence continued into Saturday night.

At around 8:50pm, a 19-year-old man was found with two fatal gun wounds in his back at a bodega in Brooklyn. Once again, the cops are still unsure what happened while no arrests have been made. And then three hours later, a 54-year-old man was found dead at a motel in Elmhurst. The officials on the scene determined it was homicide and could be the result of a strangling.

And we haven't even mentioned the other shootings that went down this weekend yet.

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NYPD

Moments before fatally shooting California tourist Brandon Lincoln Woodard in midtown yesterday, the alleged killer exits a grey sedan, flips up the hood on his sweatshirt and calmly walks toward his victim, according to a video released by the NYPD this morning.

In a security camera photo still also released this morning, the killer is seen standing behind the left ear of the victim, and appears to be drawing a gun from a pocket in his sweatshirt.

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The Far Rockaways, long ignored by many New Yorkers, was one of the areas most devastated by last month's Hurricane Sandy, which swept through the neighborhood flooding the streets, cutting power, and ending lives. The destruction is so complete that some reports estimate years before the Rockaways recovers. Most residents are still without power and heat. Although much of the narrative has been about the lack of crime in the boroughs following Sandy, wary Rockaway citizens have taken to arming themselves with knives, bats, guns and even bows and arrows for protection.

Yesterday morning around 9:30 a.m., NYPD heard a report of a body lying on the boardwalk at Beach 13 Street in the 101st precinct. When officers examined, they found an unidentified man. He'd been shot twice in the head. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene.

As of this post, authorities told the Voice they have no further information about the apparent murder. Anyone with any knowledge, though, should call the anonymous Crimestoppers line at 1-800-577-TIPS.

New York Red Bulls

Michael Jones

Early Sunday morning around 4:30 a.m., NYPD responded to a call of a young, white male who had been assaulted in front of 25 West 14th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. When cops arrived on the scene, they found the victim was Michael Jones, a 25-year-old from West Harrison, a suburb in Westchester County, New York. He worked as a youth coach for the New York Red Bulls.

Jones was lying in a pool of his own blood. His throat was cut, his stomach was slashed open, and his left ear was severed from his head. Bleeding out, Jones was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Though police say it's still early in the investigation, authorities told the Village Voice that there is no evidence supporting that the victim was robbed. Police didn't find anything taken from Jones, and his cell phone was found on the street nearby.

"There's nothing point to a robbery at this point, but obviously [Jones] ain't telling us," an officer told us early Monday morning.

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Lloyd Morgan was killed by a stray bullet while watching a charity basketball game in the Bronx last week.

The Bronx District Attorney's Office announced this afternoon that Rondell "Spyder" Pinkerton has been formally charged with murder in the shooting death of a 4-year-old boy.

In addition to the second-degree murder charge, Pinkerton also has been charged with one count  of first-degree assault, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon for the July 22, gun battle that claimed the life of 4-year-old Lloyd Morgan.

Pinkerton, 17, admitted to police last week that he fired shots during a charity basketball tournament at the Forest Houses project in Morrisania, one of which is suspected to have hit Morgan, killing the boy.

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Sarah Fox

The Occupy Wall Street movement has been linked to the 2004 murder of a 21-year-old Julliard student -- and that link is in a chain occupiers used to wreak havoc at a Brooklyn subway station earlier this year.

Police have linked DNA recovered from a chain occupiers used to hold open a gate at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush in March to DNA recovered from a CD player found near the murder scene of Sarah Fox, an aspiring actress who was found murdered in Inwood Park in May of 2004.

Just because DNA found at the crime scene also was found on the chain, it doesn't necessarily mean the killer is an occupier. While it could be, the DNA also could belong to anyone who passed by the open gate and made contact with the chain.

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nypost.com

Nunez fleeing the scene of the murders.

On the evening of June 7th, three men - Luis Catalan, 25; Heriberto Suazo, 26; and Amaury Rodriguez, 30 - were found dead inside a stolen $88,000 BMW on 122nd Street and Claremont Avenue, just on the outskirts of the Columbia University campus. 
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Altagracia Mayi, in 2002

On March 28, 1991, Manuel Mayi was beaten to death by a mob in Corona, Queens.

At the time, as many as 10 white individuals chased the 18 year-old Dominican for 16 blocks. They then hit him with baseball bats, fatally cracking his skull. Cops made three arrests. The District Attorney tried one individual, who was not convicted.

Altagracia Mayi, his mother, still wants answers: "I will never tire of seeking justice," she told El Diario.

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C.S. Muncy

Occupy Wall Street roared back to life yesterday, as protesters marched and attempted to re-occupy Zuccotti Park. They were met by police who closed the park and violently arrested occupiers. Head over to the account by the Voice's Nick Pinto, who was on the scene, along with photographer C.S. Muncy. In his piece, Pinto explains that "the day would become a sort of a condensed repetition of Occupy's history, as protesters marched, set up shop in Zuccotti Park, clashed with police, were arrested in significant numbers, and were ultimately re-evicted, as police forcefully dragged them from the public plaza and re-erected the barricades blocking off the park." As of 9:07 a.m. DCPI did not have a total number of arrests. [Runnin' Scared]

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