By Rebecca Henely
A Brooklyn man suspected of shooting a couple in the back of the head and leaving their bodies in a running car near Linden Hill cemetery in Ridgewood turned a gun on himself Nov. 3 when cops approached his residence, police sources confirmed.
Police went to the home of Larry Spiecker, 42, at Menahan Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn, at around 6 p.m., police said. The New York Post reported a shot was heard from inside Spiecker’s barricaded apartment.
Police said they found Spiecker dead when they entered the home.
“Someone had overheard Larry say that if cops come he’s gonna go all out and shoot at the cops and kill himself,” a friend of Leonard Archipolo, one of the victims, and Spiecker told the Post. He asked not to be identified.
Spiecker was being investigated in the double-murder of Archipolo, 47, of Brooklyn, and Yomarya Santiago, 23, of Maspeth, police said. On Oct. 28, the pair were found on Woodward Avenue near Willoughby Avenue in a maroon sedan that had the motor running and the lights on. They had both been shot in the back of the head.
The Post reported Archipolo had a criminal record, with eight prior arrests including charges of rape, robbery and drugs. The anonymous friend said Spiecker also had a criminal record and had been in state prison five times, the paper reported.
The friend told the Post that Spiecker murdered Archipolo over money from a robbery the two of them had worked together on two weeks earlier. The men stole $20,000 from drug dealers, the friend told the Post.
The friend said the two of them grew up in Ridgewood and had been stealing from drug dealers and their stash houses for the last 10 years, the Post reported.
Santiago was a former prostitute who directed Archipolo and Spiecker toward johns, the friend told the Post.
“She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the friend told the Post.
State Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) said his office has been offering its assistance to the 104th Precinct in the case.
“Any kind of murder is an unfortunate situation. It could happen anywhere, it just happened to be in Ridgewood,” Addabbo said.
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
