LONG ISLAND CITY, NY (PIX11)—
Detectives try to figure out if the second fatal encounter in less than three days at New York City gas stations was a brutal beatdown, or if it was an act of self defense.
The latest incident was at a Gulf station on Van Dam Street in Long Island City. Jesse Singh, 28, was on duty as an attendant and cashier at the gas station, during the 5 A.M. hour. That’s when another man, Oscar Arzeno, 28, approached the business. Within the hour, the two got into a fight at the end of which Arzeno was dead.
Exactly what ensued is what investigators try to figure out now, but Singh’s family, who own the gas station, say they know why Arzeno ended up dying. “He was a drunk, he used some sort of drug,” Jervail Singh Sandhu, Jesse Singh’s uncle, told PIX11 News, referring to Oscar Arzeno. “When they were fighting each other, [Arzeno] went down. He did not die with the punch.”
Singh Sandhu said that a tow truck operator affiliated with his gas station saw what was going on, and has spoken with police. He said that Arzeno had walked up to the gas station, and got upset when he couldn’t get money out of the ATM there. Singh Sandhu also said the witness told him that Arzeno banged on the bulletproof cashier’s cage, trying to get the attendant, Singh, to talk with him about the ATM. Singh refused.
A short while later, a customer drove up in the full serve lane, Singh Sandhu said. When his nephew went out of the cashier’s box to pump gas, Arzeno was waiting, according to Singh Sandhu.
“He hit him on the face,” he said. “And then my [nephew] started.” He said Jesse Singh called police after Arzeno yanked at least one gas hose from its connection to its pump.
The two struggled, and their fight moved out from the gas station and into adjacent Greenpoint Avenue. That’s where, before police arrived, Arzeno went down, and never got up. A motorist passing by got out and tied Arzeno’s hands behind him with a t-shirt, according to an eyewitness.
The gas station owner, Singh Sandhu, released to PIX11 News some of the surveillance video from his business, which captured the struggle. He said that it, along with the autopsy report expected days from now, will prove his nephew’s innocence. “Self defense. [It was] self defense, yes.”
The question now is if investigators believe that. They are still interviewing Jesse Singh.
But with this incident having happened two days after gas station worker Lamin Sillah, 28, was murdered at a gas station across the street from the Bronx Zoo, Singh’s family said they’d rather he be in police custody proving his innocence than not be alive to try and make his case.
Oscar Arzeno was a loving father, friend, and husband who was on vacation and under the influence was beaten and killed. He was not a drunk or on any drugs. Its sad to lose a friend of mine and see this article where people that do not know him personally judging him. Singh is a murderer and nuthin less,who should be charged to the fullest extent of the law. He took someones life away who was changing his life for his family. Now his children have to grow up with out a father