Suspect dead; kids left at Staten Island CVS after Philly murder prompts Amber Alert
DREXEL HILL, Pa. (WABC) -- A suspect is dead and two children have been found safe at a CVS on Staten Island after a murder in Philadelphia prompted an Amber Alert early Thursday.
Police said a 31-year-old Keith Belajonas killed his wife around 3 a.m. at a home in the 200 block of Abbey Terrace in Drexel Hill, a suburb of Philadelphia, and then fled with the couple's two children. They said he believed his wife, Christina Belajonas, was cheating on him.
She was stabbed and shot in front of their sons and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Keith Belajonas took off in a gray Nissan Pathfinder with the license plate JDH 7477 and an L.A. Kings decal in the back window. He then traveled to Staten Island, where he allegedly held up a CVS on Victory Boulevard where a relative works. The two boys, 4-year-old Christopher and 5-year-old Robert, were left at the store.
Keith Belajonas' brother works at the store, which Belajonas held up, taking cigarettes, cash and beer, police said.
Dawn Castagna became friends with the couple after they met in a parenting group several years ago. "Everybody's bashing him. I get it ... it's a horrible situation, but he's a good man," she said. "He was a good father, she was a good mother and now these two boys have no parents."
Someone recognized Belajonas' car and called 911. The self-proclaimed gun enthusiast began driving erratically, then turned off onto a dead-end street, Bartlett Avenue, which is just off Katan Avenue in the Eltingville section. Police said he shot and killed himself before cops even had the chance to get to him.
A large police presence, including a SWAT van, was set up nearby.
Keith Belajonas apparently posted on Facebook about an argument with wife, saying that she cheated on him and that he won the argument. He had lived on Staten Island for at least 10 years and has numerous relatives in the borough.
A fund has been started for Belajonas' sons:
http://www.gofundme.com/cpahx4
