Tech CEO's personal assistant charged in gruesome killing
NEW YORK - Police arrested a Brooklyn man in the murder of a tech entrepreneur in Manhattan, a law enforcement official said Friday. The suspect worked at a personal assistant to the victim, Fahim Saleh, whose body was found dismembered inside his luxury seventh-floor apartment on the Lower East Side.
Police officers found Saleh, 33, at around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Responding officers discovered a clothed torso, bags containing a head and arms, and an electric saw in the living room, police had said. A relative had called the cops after going to check on Saleh and making the gruesome discovery.
On Friday, authorities charged Tyrese Haspil, 21, of Brooklyn, with murder. Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said that Haspil, who handled Saleh's financial and personal matters, apparently owed his boss a lot of money.
Investigators recovered video surveillance from a hardware store that morning shows a man identified as Haspil purchasing the saw and cleaning supplies found at the seventh-floor apartment on the Lower East Side, according to court documents.
Authorities also found security video showing Saleh exiting an elevator that leads directly into the full-floor, two-bedroom apartment earlier Tuesday afternoon, closely followed by a masked person dressed entirely in black according to another law enforcement official who was briefed on the case. It also shows a struggle between the two that ensued at the entrance to the apartment, said the official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Court papers say Saleh fell to the floor after being shocked by a stun gun.
Police believe that the relative, a cousin, may have interrupted the intruder before the killer fled out a back exit.
The decapitated body of Fahim Saleh, 33, was found in his apartment on the Lower East Side. (FOX 5 NY)
Officers responding to the cousin’s 911 call discovered Saleh’s clothed torso, bags containing a head and arms and an electric saw in the living room of his apartment on the Lower East Side, police said.
Saleh was stabbed five times in the neck and torso and had wounds on his arm and left hand. He was dismembered just below the knees, at both shoulders and the neck, according to court papers.
Saleh was the chief executive officer of a ride-hailing motorcycle startup called Gokada that began operating in Nigeria in 2018. His LinkedIn biography described him as a self-taught businessman who founded Gokada, building on his experience of first "seeing an opportunity in his parent's native country of Bangladesh" and starting that country's largest ride-sharing company. It said he also invested in a similar venture in Colombia.
Apartments in the 10-story building where Saleh's remains were found sell for more than $2 million. The building was completed in 2017 as part of a wave of gentrification in the neighborhood.