A New York City landlord is out on bail after he and his brother were arrested for allegedly beating a tenant with a baseball bat amid a rent dispute.
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According to the New York Post, Omar Lamoni and his brother, Edwin Nina, were arrested after they allegedly beat the tenant, Kristopher Samaraoo, outside a rental located on Throngs Neck Expressway last weekend. Nina is accused of showing up with a steel baseball bat, which was alleged used in the beating.
Samaroo’s fiancée, Brittney Shears, witnessed the alleged attack.
“[The landlord’s brother] goes straight to the trunk of his car, grabs a steel bat, runs up my steps to the front of my house, and starts wailing on my husband,” she claimed to News 12. “From there, my husband jumped on him. They fall down here onto the ground.”
Shears further alleged out that Lamoni joined the fight shortly after that.
“They keep saying that we’re not paying rent at the moment, but that’s further from the truth,” she said. “[The landlord] accepts partial payment for rent because they keep cutting off my hot water.”
Samaroo was able to get inside the house as Shears called 911. When law enforcement arrived on the scene, they discovered Samaroo had “trauma around the body.”
Samaroo was declared dead shortly after arriving at nearby Jacobi Hospital.
The Landlord and His Brother Were Charged With Second-Degree Assault Following Tenant Attack
Both the landlord and his brother were charged with second-degree assault. Lamoni was also hit with an endangering the welfare of a child charge.
The child had been nearby when the attack took place. However, it remains unclear if there was a connection between the child and Lamoni.
Lamoi is out on supervised release, despite the Bronx District Attorney’s Office requesting he be held on a $100,000 cash bail or $300,000 bond. Nina remains behind bars and is being held on $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 bond.
New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development also reported that the rental property where the attack took place has had at least 67 complaints and 17 violations in the past two years. Several of the complaints were related to hot water.
Shears revealed that she and Samaroo had moved into the property in 2022.
“That man was my soulmate, and we were supposed to get married,” she said of Samaroo. “He’s brought me out of depression.”
The couple shared two daughters, ages two and six months.
“My girls don’t deserve not to have a father,” she said.
The investigation remains ongoing.