Police charge man with murder after two women found fatally stabbed in Nassau County
ISLAND PARK, Long Island (WABC) -- Police say a 22-year-old man killed his roommate and a coworker in two separate attacks Thursday night and early Friday morning in Nassau County.
Authorities identified the suspect as Rony Yahir Alvarenga Rivera.
Police say he first killed a 32-year-old woman at the Valley Stream home they shared on West Mineola Avenue around 9 p.m. Thursday, then later stabbed and killed a coworker at a Wendy's restaurant on Austin Boulevard in Island Park.
Nassau County officials on Saturday did not release a motive, instead describing the suspect's mental state.
"To sum it up in one word, angry," said Detective Lieutenant George Darienzo, commanding officer of homicide for the Nassau County Police Department.
Both victims were women and were killed by multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso, police said.
Police responded to Wendy's a little after midnight on Friday for a report of a person with a knife. Inside, they found a 42-year-old woman, a mother of two, who was pronounced dead at the scene by medics.
While officers were investigating that homicide, police received a call about a man in need of help at a 7-Eleven in Lynbrook.
"The officers responded, and that individual said he had killed somebody that night," Darienzo said. "A short conversation ensued, and an arrest was made. At that same time, information was received that this individual may be responsible for a second murder."
Police say Alvarenga Rivera came to the United States illegally at age 12. Officers linked him to the earlier killing of his roommate after the Lynbrook encounter.
Residents near the Valley Stream home said they did not know either the suspect or the victim.
For a second consecutive day, the atmosphere at the Wendy's in Island Park was somber. Community members drove past the restaurant Saturday, some stopping briefly to reflect.
"I just wanted to see the area where it happened and just tell her that I'm sorry," one woman said from her car. "You don't have to know somebody to feel horrible for what happened."
A resident reacting to the scope of the alleged attacks said, "For him to go out of his way to kill his roommate down the street and then go all the way to a Wendy's that he worked at to kill his coworker. Like he must have had something against him real bad."
Rivera is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder.
Nassau County officials also claim the suspect is an immigrant from El Salvador who entered the country illegally.
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