NYPD: Slaying suspect left apology note
Roses are left next to where the body of Michael Jones, left, a youth soccer coach in West Harrison, was found early Sunday morning outside the Levi's store in Manhattan. (Oct. 8, 2012) Credit: News12/Getty Images
The man suspected in the killing of a popular youth soccer coach for the Red Bulls left an apology note with his family at his Queens apartment before he fled to Mexico and also asked for forgiveness, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
"I'm sorry," Orlando Orea said in the note, according to a police official.
Orea, who police said is suspected of slashing and mutilating coach Michael Jones, 25, in Union Square early Sunday, also professed love for his own family in the missive, the official said.
"I love you guys very much. I hope you can forgive me," the note stated, the official added.
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly first disclosed the existence of the note at a news conference after a ceremony Thursday morning at the police memorial in Battery Park.
"It is a note that basically makes the statement of -- that he was sorry," was how Kelly characterized it. He said police had taken items from Orea's Ridgewood apartment.
Kelly said that Interpol has joined the NYPD and FBI in the hunt for Orea, an illegal immigrant who came to the United States from Puebla, Mexico, and had been working as a day laborer in construction.
Kelly wouldn't characterize the note as an admission of guilt by Orea, a former Long Island resident.
NYPD detectives were slated to fly to Mexico as early as last night to join in the search for Orea, 32. If requested by the NYPD, Interpol, the international police agency, will issue a special bulletin known as a "red notice" to alert its nearly 200 member nations to be on the lookout for Orea. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Thursday night that it was unclear if the department had requested the notice.
If Orea is found in Mexico and arrested, U.S. authorities have 60 days to file a request for extradition, said Douglas C. McNabb, an attorney who is an expert on extradition law and not involved in the case.
A suspect can either waive extradition and come back quickly to the United States or can decide to fight the process in Mexican courts, which can be a time-consuming process, McNabb said.
Jones, of West Harrison in Westchester County, was fatally slashed in the neck and torso at 4:30 a.m. Sunday on 14th Street near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, police said. The Red Bulls will dedicate the Oct. 20 game to Jones' memory. His body will be returned to England.
