A 39-year-old man who blamed a Manhattan psychiatrist for having him institutionalized 17 years ago was charged on Saturday with killing a female psychologist in a furious knife attack and then slashing the psychiatrist when he tried to come to the woman’s aid, law enforcement officials said.
The man, David Tarloff, was picked up at his home in Queens at 7:20 a.m. and later made statements implicating himself in the killing of Dr. Kathryn Faughey, 56, and the assault of Dr. Kent D. Shinbach, who is in his 70s, on Tuesday night inside the East 79th Street offices they shared, the police said.
Mr. Tarloff told investigators he went to the doctor’s offices with plans to rob Dr. Shinbach. Mr. Tarloff then planned to take his ailing mother, Beatrice, either out of the country or to Hawaii, the police said. It was unclear why Dr. Faughey was attacked.
Mr. Tarloff told investigators that he did not know she would be in the offices and did not intend to attack her. Dr. Shinbach was slashed when he ran to help Dr. Faughey after hearing her screams, the police said.
Detectives found the scene awash in blood, and they discovered two suitcases that the assailant had left behind in the building’s basement. He had been in the basement in the hours before the killing, possibly to scout out an escape route, the police said. And that is where he ultimately did flee through a side door to the street.
A palm print found on the handle of one of the suitcases matched a palm print from Mr. Tarloff’s left hand that was taken after he was arrested on Feb. 1. at a Queens hospital when he tried to visit his mother and got into a violent confrontation with a security guard, law enforcement officials said.
Two more palm prints from Mr. Tarloff’s right hand were found on the packaging for adult disposable diapers that were inside one of the suitcases, officials said.
In addition, Mr. Tarloff was picked out in police lineups by three people who saw him on the night of the attack: Dr. Shinbach, a female patient who saw the attacker in the office’s waiting room and another patient who was just leaving when he showed up, about 8 p.m., the police said.
“These officers knocked on doors, they followed leads and they examined evidence around the clock to make this arrest possible,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Saturday.
News of the developments came as Dr. Faughey’s family and friends gathered for her funeral Mass at a church on the Upper East Side, just steps away from where she was killed.
Dr. Faughey, who practiced in a building across the street from her apartment, was remembered as a woman with a winning smile, wisdom and a talent for adding brightness to people’s lives during dark times.
About 350 people attended the hourlong service, including many of her patients, at St. Monica’s Catholic Church.
“It’s just such a tragedy,” said Emily Fragos, 57, a neighbor who attended the funeral. “We’re all very disturbed at the level of violence, that someone could strike down someone in our midst.”
In statements to investigators, Mr. Tarloff expressed anger at Dr. Shinbach, whom he blamed for having him committed to a mental health institution. Officials said it was unclear, however, if Mr. Tarloff had ever been a patient of Dr. Shinbach’s.
Mr. Tarloff was captured on surveillance videos from the lobby and the basement.
On them, the middle-aged suspect entered the lobby shortly after 8 p.m. wearing a black cap, a dark coat and sneakers, toting two pieces of black luggage.
He told the doorman who held a glass door open for him that he was there to see Dr. Shinbach. But Dr. Shinbach had another patient, a woman, waiting for him, so the man sat on the couch next to her for roughly a half-hour and waited. After the female patient went into Dr. Shinbach’s office, the killer went into Dr. Faughey’s office, where she was working alone.
Hearing her screams, Dr. Shinbach rushed into her office and saw her lying still on the blood-soaked carpet.
The attacker then turned on him, slashing him in the face, head and hands. “She’s dead,” the killer said, as he continued his attack on him, police said. When he finished, he pinned Dr. Shinbach against the wall with a chair, took $90 from his wallet and fled out the building’s basement exit, 56 minutes after he had arrived.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/nyregion/17murder.html?hp
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