An 18-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday in connection with the grizzly slaying of a Bronx man whose body was dismembered and set ablaze in a shopping cart under a Yonkers bridge, authorities said.
Ronei Harris was apprehended around 4:30 p.m. in the Bronx — a day after her boyfriend and codefendant Muhammad Aadil, 40, was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court for allegedly killing roommate Lutalo Henderson.
Firefighters discovered Henderson’s body — minus his feet, hands and teeth — aflame in a shopping cart under the Oak St. Bridge in Yonkers around 2 a.m. on Aug. 5.
Footage obtained by the Daily News shows two individuals wheeling a cart down the sidewalk near the Bronx apartment building where human remains were found.
Oak St. BridgeHarris is charged with murder, concealment of a corpse, weapon possession and drug possession with intent to sell, according to a statement released by the Bronx District Attorney’s office.
Harris and Aadil allegedly killed Henderson, 46, some time between July 27 and Aug. 5, and dismembered his body, loaded it into a shopping cart and together transported it via a Metro North train to a spot under the Oak St. Bridge, where the couple left it after setting it on fire, the statement charges.
Lutalo Henderson, 46, had been missing since the grisly discovery was made August 5.
“The defendants cut off his legs below the knees, his hands and removed his jaw. They wrapped the torso in trash bags and took it in a shopping cart to Yonkers via the Metro North train,” the statement reads in part.
”This was brutal disregard for a human being,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement from his office.
The macabre journey was caught on various security cameras. By painstakingly piecing together the footage, cops traced the two defendants back to the apartment on Rogers Place near Dawson St. in the South Bronx that Henderson and Aadil shared, police said.
When they entered the apartment, investigators found Henderson’s hands in a crockpot, a leg in the freezer, and his teeth.
Henderson, a fiber optics technician, began renting out a room to Aadil about six months ago after they met at an Occupational Safety and Health Administration training and certification program, Henderson’s sister Aziza told the Daily News.
Soon Harris started hanging out at the apartment, according to the victim’s sister. “He didn’t want her there,” Aziza said of her brother. “He didn’t want Muhammad there. He wanted them to leave. That was the conflict.”
It is still not clear how Henderson was killed before he was dismembered. The cause of death has only been listed as “homicidal violence,” a source said.
According to police, the apartment was a known spot to score and do narcotics.
Aadil had a large quantity of drugs on him when he was nabbed by cops in the Bronx on Friday, police said. He has done three stints in prison, all for New York City drug sale convictions, records show, and was most recently released in 2019.
At Aadil’s arraignment Monday, he winked at a woman in the audience as he was brought handcuffed into the courtroom. The woman’s identity was not immediately known.
Harris will be arraigned at a later date, according to the Bronx DA’s office.
“Right before this happened he told me he was going back into rehab. Right before, like maybe a couple of weeks,” an ex-girlfriend of Henderson’s with whom he remained friendly told The News. “He called me and told me he made the decision, he was going back into rehab because he couldn’t fight this thing. He couldn’t do it on his own.”