Police Continue to Struggle to Break Sunnyside Murder Case

March 1, 2013 By Christian Murray

The police appear to have made little progress in tracking down the killers of a local man.

Lou Rispoli, a 62-year-old Woodside man, was brutally attacked outside a residential building at 41-00 43^rd Avenue in Sunnyside last October. Rispoli was hit in the back of the head with a blunt object and died five days later in Elmhurst hospital.

The police, who have been starved for leads, appeared to get a break in January, when they were able to release sketches of two of the three men they believe were involved in the murder.

“We have got some response [from the sketches],” Deputy Inspector Donald Powers, said at the police precinct meeting Tuesday night. “There are some open leads from what was heard from the public.”

Powers, however, would not state whether any significant progress had been made in the case and urged the public to come forward with information. However, he remained confident the perpetrators would be caught.

The attack took place at about 2:15 am Saturday Oct. 20. While the police arrived shortly after the incident, it took 36 hours before a crime scene vehicle showed up to conduct a thorough investigation.

Powers said he reached out to the police department’s internal affairs bureau to conduct an investigation as to what was the cause of the delay. However, despite it being initiated in November, it has yet to be completed.

Meanwhile, across the precinct (which includes Sunnyside/Woodside & LIC), the number of serious crimes that have been reported has dropped 5.5% this year, compared to the same period last year.