By Howard Koplowitz
An 84-year-old retired U.S. Army veteran was found dead early Monday in his Queens Village home, police and neighbors said.
The death of William Cyril, of 216th Street in Queens Village, was not being treated as a homicide, according to a spokeswoman for the Police Department’s public information arm.
Cyril was discovered by his home health care aide shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, the New York Post reported.
The paper said Cyril’s body was tied up and that the aide noticed a window of the home was broken, but the police spokeswoman said authorities had no information that the 84-year-old was bound.
“He was just a good guy, a nice guy, a gentleman of the old school,” said neighbor Wes Houston, who has lived on the block for 26 years.
Houston said he was aware of the reports that Cyril was tied up and said the block was worried.
“The immediate neighbors are concerned because you like to know: Do [the police] think this is a random thingi” he said. “Everybody seems to have a different idea of what’s going on.”
Houston said Cyril was an Army veteran and retired from the U.S. Post Office. He got out of the hospital about a month ago and spent time working on his lawn, Houston said.
“I knew him for 26 years,” he said. “He was a gentleman, worked around his yard a lot.”
Houston said Cyril “wasn’t much of a talker,” but when he did speak, it was mostly about his times in the Army.
Houston said his neighbor was angered that his garage had been a constant target for graffiti vandals.
“He was a big guy who took no gruff,” he said.
Another neighbor said he was too distraught to speak.
“He’s a really good guy,” the neighbor said. “That’s all I can say.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
