By Betsy Scheinbart
One day after a 28-year-old woman was stabbed to death at her home in Laurelton, police arrested her live-in boyfriend last Thursday and charged him with the murder, authorities said.
Lamont Pierce, 29, who lived with his girlfriend, Virginia Shelly, at 218-09 141st Ave. on the border of Laurelton and Springfield Gardens, was arrested and charged with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon, according to police and the Queens district attorney’s office.
Pierce has a long criminal history, said Meris Campbell, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. At press time, Pierce was being held in prison, awaiting a court date later this month.
Shelly was fatally stabbed at 1:15 a.m. Dec. 26, less than 24 hours after her neighbor, Sheila Bradley, 32, of 219-28 141st Ave., was stabbed to death — allegedly by the father of her 3-year-old son, police said. The boy was caught in the middle of the domestic dispute, police said.
Michael Brown, 42, was arrested last Thursday and charged with killing Bradley and seriously injuring her brother, David Bradley, at 11:29 a.m. on Christmas Day, police said.
After the Christmas stabbings, Brown was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition with a stab wound to the stomach, police said.
The district attorney’s office filed a complaint against Brown, but at press time he had not yet been arraigned in court because he remained in the hospital, said Betsy Herzog, a spokeswoman for the DA.
Sheila Bradley was pronounced dead at Franklin General Hospital on Dec. 25 while David Bradley was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in critical condition, police said. By Friday, his condition was upgraded to stable, said Juliet Lewis, a spokeswoman for the hospital.
When police responded to the scene, they said they found Sheila and David Bradley lying on the floor with multiple stab wounds and saw Brown barricaded in a room with one hand around the child’s neck and another holding a lamp.
One of the policemen was hit on the head with the lamp while struggling to subdue Brown with mace and separate him from the child, police said.
The policeman was treated for minor injuries at North Shore University Hospital, police said. The 3-year-old boy did not suffer any injuries, but was taken to Franklin General Hospital and treated for exposure to mace.
Both killings occurred in the 105th Precinct, where Sheila Pecoraro heads the community council. Pecoraro said the fact that two homicides took place within 24 hours in the same neighborhood was a “pure fluke.”
She also said the Police Department was braced for more domestic disputes during the holiday season.
“These were domestic homicides that can happen at any day, any time,” Pecoraro said. “It just happens more on certain holidays.”
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 138.
