Exclusive Video Shows Marshals, NYPD Raid Home of Quadruple Murder Suspect's Girlfriend

Surveillance video obtained exclusively by NBC 4 New York shows more than a dozen U.S. Marshals and NYPD officers raiding the Brooklyn home of Washington, D.C., quadruple murder suspect Darron Dellon Dennis Wint's girlfriend earlier this week as the national manhunt intensified for the suspected killer. 

Wint, 34, was arrested on murder charges late Thursday during a traffic stop in Washington, D.C., about 24 hours after he slipped by authorities in New York City, according to Robert Fernandez, the commanders of the U.S. Marshal Service's Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force.

The surveillance video also shows police taking Wint's girlfriend from her Canarsie home to be interviewed by investigators at a precinct stationhouse a few blocks away.

"It was shocking. It was confusing," said one neighbor who witnessed the raid but asked not to be identified. "We didn't know what was going on so we had to ask questions. They explained the scenario." 

Law enforcement sources said information was developed late Wednesday that Wint was possibly hiding out with his girlfriend or relatives in Brooklyn. Marshals "hit the door" at her apartment and found the girlfriend with Wint's phone, which they had tracked, but no sign of Wint. The girlfriend told authorities Wint was heading back to Washington, D.C, possibly to turn himself in.

Wint took a bus to New York, possibly to Penn Station, though the girlfriend did not have information on his mode of transportation, law enforcement sources said. The sources said the girlfriend cooperated with investigators -- not fully, but "close enough."

Wint's activities in Brooklyn -- and the amount of time he spent in New York - - remain under investigation. Neighbors of his girlfriend tell NBC 4 New York they had seen Wint in the neighborhood before, standing on his girlfriend's porch smoking cigarettes. 

Fernandez said Wint likely fled New York after seeing himself on the news. Law enforcement sources told NBC 4 New York Wint paid someone -- likely with some of the money he allegedly stole from the family he killed -- to drive him in a car back to Washington, D.C.

Investigators tracked Wint to a Howard Johnson Express Inn in College Park, Maryland, on Thursday night, Fernandez said. A team realized Wint was probably in one of two vehicles in the motel parking lot: a car or a moving truck. The vehicles left together and the team followed as they took a U-turn and a strange route — seeming to be lost or trying to shake those who followed, Fernandez said.

Officers got between the two vehicles in northeast Washington and took Wint, three other men and two women into custody, Fernandez said

"We had overwhelming numbers and force," Fernandez said. "They completely submitted immediately."

Wint is accused of the May 14 slayings of American Iron Works CEO Savvas Savopoulos, 46; his wife, Amy Savopoulos, 47; their son, Philip; and housekeeper Veralicia "Vera" Figueroa, 57. Authorities say they think the victims were kept bound and threatened at their home overnight, and their bodies were found beaten and stabbed after firefighters put out a fire at the home.

Wint was identified as a suspect in the slaying after his DNA was found on a piece of pizza delivered to the slain family's home on May 13.

The next morning, someone delivered $40,000 in cash to the multimillion-dollar house. The cash was withdrawn from an account at American Iron Works. Sometime after the cash arrived, the home was set on fire, leading to the discovery of the bodies.

Three of the victims had been beaten and stabbed to death, and some of the bodies smelled of gasoline, police said. The body of 10-year-old Philip was so badly burned that investigators weren't sure if he was injured before the fire was set. The boy's body was found in his room; three other bodies were found on the floor in another bedroom.

The family Porsche was found burning in a church parking lot in suburban Maryland. Police had circulated the grainy image of a person leaving the scene of the car fire, wearing black clothing.

A court document made public Friday said authorities believed more than one person was involved in the slayings.

Wint was a welder at American Iron Works from 2003 to 2005, and police say that his alleged crime was targeted. Authorities say they have not ruled out the possibility that multiple suspects were involved in the murders, though they declined to elaborate.

Attorney Robin Ficker, who has represented Wint in the past, told NBC Washington he doesn’t believe Wint committed the quadruple murders.

Wint has four previous arrests in New York state in the Oswego area; he has at least two assault and harassment convictions from 2007 and an open arrest warrant for violating an order of protection, a source familiar with the investigation tells NBC 4 New York. He also has an assault conviction in Maryland in 2009. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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