Authorities have arrested a suspect in the stabbing death of a groom who was celebrating his engagement on Staten Island.
Redinel Dervishaj, 35, was arrested in Illinois, NBC New York has confirmed. He was reportedly captured inside an aunt's home. Law enforcement officials said he has ties to the Albanian mob and was shot in a 2007 dispute with a fellow gangster.
Dervishaj is suspected in the death of 27-year-old Antonio Lacertosa, who was stabbed early Saturday after his engagement party. Lacertosa's wake was held Tuesday.
"It gives us a little bit of something today, on the most horrible day of my life," Linda Lacertosa, his mother, told reporters after the wake. "I'm eternally grateful to the police department."
Antonio Lacertosa and his friends had gone to Espana Restaurant and Lounge in Annandale to continue their celebration after an earlier party at a catering hall, and ended up getting into an argument with bar management -- allegedly over unruly boisterous behavior -- at about 2 a.m., according to SILive.com.
The argument escalated outside the restaurant and Lacertosa was stabbed in the torso. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Four days after Lacertosa's death, closure was still a long way off for grieving family members.
"There's no such thing. We will never get him back, regardless of what happens with the investigation, with the arrest or anything, we will never get him back," said Lacertosa's brother-in-law, Jamie Caruvana. "My daughters will never get to see their uncle."
It was not immediately clear whether Dervishaj had an attorney.
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