The NYPD on Wednesday arrested and charged a Hollis man in connection with the fatal beating of a Jamaica pawn shop owner.
Detectives with the NYPD’s Fugitive Task Force tracked down 48-year-old Rondolfo Lopez-Portillo in Maryland and brought him back to the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica where he was charged with murder, robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the March beating, according to authorities.
Arasb Shoughi, 60, of Jamaica Estates, succumbed to his injuries the morning of April 17 at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center where he was taken after the March 28 attack inside his Global Pawn Shop on Jamaica Avenue near 179th Street.
When police arrived at the crime scene they found the businessman had been beaten so severely during the robbery investigators initially thought he had been shot in the head. EMS responded to the crime scene and transported the victim to Jamaica Hospital, where doctors revealed that the victim was suffering from blunt force trauma, police said.
The NYPD released chilling surveillance video from inside the shop days after the attack that showed Shoughi knocked to the floor and viciously beaten in the head with a metal pipe by the suspect who removed jewelry from the pawn shop before fleeing the crime scene westbound on Jamaica Avenue.
Lopez-Portillo, who lived on Jamaica Avenue near 186th Street, is being booked at the 103rd Precinct.
