Three people were found dead in overnight fires across the city on Monday, and according to tabloid reports, two of the deaths are being investigated as suspicious.
According to police, authorities found a man dead in a building lobby—reportedly with stab wounds—while responding to a fire shortly after 3 a.m. at 248 Adelphi Street. The Daily News reports that the man is L. Antonio Litman, the owner of the three-story brownstone two blocks from Fort Greene Park. The fire was reportedly contained to the basement.
Litman, the founder of the charity for children, Virginia's House of Hope, was found "with puncture wounds to his neck and around his body," NYPD sources told the paper.
“He was like the mayor of the block,” one neighbor told the News.
Around the same time, responded to a fire at a house under construction at 103-18 217th Street in Queens Village. Police said they found a man dead on the scene. According to the Post, the man, who has not been identified, was "found with his hands tied behind his back."
The Medical Examiner will investigate the cause of death for both men.
A third blaze broke out shortly before 3 a.m. at 120 Casals Place in Co-Op City in the Bronx, where officers found an 85-year-old man passed out.
NYPD says the man was discovered unconscious and unresponsive inside of his 11th floor apartment, and a 49-year-old woman was discovered suffering from smoke inhalation in the lobby. The man, who has not yet been identified, was pronounced dead at Jacobi Hospital, while the woman is in stable condition, police said.
