Suspect in therapist attack-David Tarloff - arrested
By on
February 16th, 2008
A Queens man, David Tarloff, 39, with a history of mental problems has been arrested in the vicious slaying of a psychologist attacked in her office with a meat cleaver. David Tarloff was taken into custody early Saturday after investigators matched him to three palm prints found at the crime scene, according to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Police say Tarloff was questioned for about 20 minutes, and the interrogation stopped when he asked for a lawyer. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says murder and attempted murder charges are pending.
Cops believe the suspect - a diagnosed schizophrenic - was furious with psychologist Kathryn Faughey and her business partner, harboring a 15-year-old grudge against them.
Wearing a green overcoat and baseball hat, arrived at the office about 8 p.m. Tuesday, saying he had an appointment with Dr. Kent Shinbach, a geriatric psychiatrist who worked in the same office suite as Faughey. The suspect walked past a doorman, into the waiting room and then into Faughey’s office. Hee assaulted therapist Kathryn Faughey, slashed 15 times with a meat cleaver and a 9-inch knife.
Dr. Kent Shinbach came to Faughey’s aid. The assailant then attacked Shinbach, pinning him to the wall with a chair and stealing $90 before escaping through a basement door. Shinbach was in serious condition at a hospital with slash wounds on his head, face and arms.
David Tarloff has a long history of mental problems and hospitalizations since 1993 when the Kathryn Faughey’s partner had David Tarloff committed to a mental institution.
Neighbors in his seven-story co-op building described Tarloff as an “unstable” man who had been institutionalized by the state.
“He’s not all there,” said a neighbor, while a second called him “a very sick person.”
Tarloff - a single man with no children and few friends - shared his Corona apartment with his elderly mom until she was put in a nursing home two years ago, neighbors said.
He was arrested Feb. 1 after attacking a security guard while visiting his mother at St. John’s Queens Hospital, police said.
“He was just an eccentric person wandering around the building. He was a person not like the rest of us,” a neighbor said.
Family friend Phyllis Zicheiman said Tarloff attended college in Miami and Syracuse, but never graduated.
Tarloff was a former patient of Dr. Kent Shinbach, which could explain why Faughey didn’t call out for help when the alleged killer first entered her E. 79th St. office last Tuesday.
Popularity: 1% [?]
