By Rich Bockmann
A South Jamaica man whom police had sought in connection with a deadly kidnapping was tracked down and arrested in Pittsburgh, the NYPD said.
Cops had been searching for Malik Wilkerson, 33, for several days after his wife, Devonee, allegedly showed up at Jamaica Hospital in a taxi cab last week with the bludgeoned and lifeless body of Harlem resident Sheryl Outerbridge, police said.
After hours of questioning, Devonee, 32, was arraigned the following day and charged with a deadly abduction and assault, court records show.
Malik was arrested in the Keystone State Saturday by members of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s Homicide Unit and officers in the NYPD’s Violent Felony Squad, the NYPD said.
As of Tuesday evening he was in Pittsburgh awaiting extradition, the NYPD added.
Police said Outerbridge knew the couple, who allegedly picked her up at the Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Avenue subway station around 2 a.m. Dec. 3 and brought her back to their apartment on 116th Street.
Once there, the two allegedly punched the Harlem woman and beat her with a paint roller, broke a glass bottle on her forehead and burned her leg with a lit cigarette, according to the criminal complaint the district attorney’s office filed against Devonee.
Later that morning Devonee and another man — who police said is not a suspect — allegedly arrived in a livery cab at Jamaica Hospital, claiming they were Good Samaritans who had found Outerbridge lying out in front of a building on Sutphin Boulevard, police said.
But throughout questioning Devonee’s story allegedly changed several times, police said, and after she was arrested and charged, the investigation led officers to Pittsburgh.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
