Hostage Crisis Ends In Suicide

An ordinarily quiet neighborhood in South Ozone Park became host to a hostage siege that continued for more than 20 hours over this past weekend.
Ex-convict Karan Persaud, 48, held his estranged wife hostage in her homefor the third time. Persaud had been released from prison in March after serving four years for previously holding his wife, Indrani Jawana Persaud, 46, captive with a machete and an electrical cord in 1999.
Havoc broke loose when Indrani Persaud returned from work at Kennedy Airport and her husband who had been hiding in the bushes, grabbed her and pushed her into a bedroom.
The couples daughters, Janet, 25, and Melissa, 13, were home at the time, and locked themselves in a bathroom where the elder sister was able to call 911 and her boyfriend, Nevash Budhaj, 26.
Persaud made no demands or threats, and the only shot fired during the hostage situation was when Budhaj tried to enter the house. Budhaj was not hurt. Indrani Persaud was finally able to escape to safety around 4:10 a.m. on Saturday morning when the gunman began to doze off. Shortly after, police heard a gunshot from within, and upon entering the premisis found Persaud with a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The hostage situation which lasted over 24 hours, had finally come to an end.
The street in front of the apartment at 105-02 Van Wyck Expressway, was filled with TV camera crews, emergency vehicles and over 50 police officers during the hostage crisis, but today it is empty. Many neighbors had been locked out of their homes for the length of the crisis but are glad Persaud was able to emerge safely. Except for the yellow police tape, life in the S. Ozone Park neighborhood is beginning to return to normalcy.