As we look forward to 2023, QNS is looking back at our top stories throughout 2022. In terms of crime, the borough was shaken by several high-profile murders that shocked the entire city.
Here are some of the top crime stories of 2022 in Queens.
South Richmond Hill man pleads guilty to manslaughter in ‘heinous killing’ of Forest Hills mom: DA
Known as one of the borough’s calmer neighborhoods, Forest Hills was rocked in April by the brutal killing of a married mother of two, whose dismembered body was found stuffed in a hockey bag near Forest Park. David Bonola, 44, a handyman from South Richmond Hill would plead guilty to manslaughter in the grisly slaying of Orsolya Gaal, with whom he had been having an on-and-off romantic affair for two years while he worked at her family’s Juno Street home before Gaal attempted to end it.
Gaal, 51, had just returned to her Juno Street home from an evening out. Bonola entered the home and began to argue with the victim when he slashed Gaal’s throat and stabbed her more than 50 times while one of her sons was in a second-floor bedroom.
Hours later, Bonola was captured on a nearby home’s security video surveillance footage wheeling a hockey duffel bag that belonged to one of the victim’s two sons. The bag, containing Gaal’s dismembered body, was found blocks away near Forest Park. at about 8 a.m. on Metropolitan Avenue, near Union Turnpike, in the vicinity of Forest Park.
Police were able to follow the trail of blood from the bag to the crime scene. In November, Bonola was sentenced today to 25 years in prison.
Briarwood man charged in murder of Chinese food delivery worker in Forest Hills commits suicide ahead of court hearing
Briarwood resident Glenn Hirsch became known as the “Duck Sauce Killer” for the murder of a Chinese food delivery worker, Zhiwen Yan, who worked for The Great Wall Restaurant in Forest Hills.
Hirsch allegedly stalked and harassed workers from the restaurant and was seen on surveillance video while driving by the restaurant after dropping his wife off at work. He had passed by the restaurant seven times before Yan left the restaurant to make a delivery at around 9:30 p.m. Hirsch followed him as he made the delivery.
When Yan stopped at a red light at 67th Drive and 108th Street, Hirsch approached Yan and shot him in the chest. Yan had died as a result of a single gunshot wound. He was 45.
Hirsch committed suicide in August before he was scheduled for a court appearance. He was found at his estranged wife’s home with a gunshot blast to his head.
Astoria man indicted for murder of EMS lieutenant that shocked city
Peter Zisopoulos, 34, was indicted for murder after he allegedly stabbed veteran EMS Lieutenant Alison Russo-Elling to death as she walked to lunch near EMS Station 49.
Zisopoulos allegedly took a knife out of his pocket, approached the victim, and attacked her without provocation. When the victim fell to the ground, the defendant allegedly stabbed her 19 times before fleeing the scene leaving the 25-year veteran dead on the sidewalk. The incident was captured on video surveillance and Zisopoulos barricaded himself inside his apartment before NYPD hostage negotiators were able to talk him out, at which point he was taken into custody. There is no indication that the two were known to each other prior to the shocking attack.
Prakash Churaman enjoying freedom after DA drops murder charge
Prakash Churaman walked out of the Queens Criminal Courthouse in Kew Gardens as a free man in June after the Queens district attorney’s office moved to drop all charges in his murder case. The surprise exoneration ended his nearly eight-year odyssey through the Queens criminal justice system that began in 2014.
Churaman was a 15-year-old immigrant from Guyana living in Rosedale when he was arrested and charged with the murder of 21-year-old Taquane Clark during a botched home invasion in South Jamaica. He was incarcerated for six years, spending four of those in pre-trial detention on Rikers Island.
Churaman was convicted at the trial in 2018 based on testimony from an “earwitness,” and he was sentenced to nine years to life in prison. The Appellate Division overturned that decision in June 2020 and he was just weeks away from his retrial when the charges were dismissed altogether during his 98th court appearance since his arrest.
During his incarceration, Churaman researched the infancy defense statute that his defense attorney used saying his client was too young to be charged with murder and too old to be tried in family court.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz requested a review of the evidence in the case by her Conviction Integrity Unit, which is dedicated to investigating wrongful convictions. Churaman became the seventh person to be exonerated by the CIU in 2022.
“I’m free,” Churaman repeated several times as he walked out of court. He said will file a lawsuit against the city for $25 million.
