Police: Homicide victim found in Greenlawn park identified
Suffolk County police homicide detectives were called Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, to investigate at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Greenlawn. A man found dead at the park with "significant lacerations" has been identified as Estiven Abrego Gomez, 18, of Greenlawn, police said. Credit: Howard Schnapp
A man found dead with “significant lacerations” in Greenlawn Memorial Park on Saturday has been identified as Estiven Abrego Gomez, 18, of Greenlawn, Suffolk County police said Wednesday.
Gomez was found at 7:11 a.m. by a man walking near one of the park baseball fields. That parkgoer noticed the victim’s body on the ground, then flagged down a passing motorist who called 911, Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer said at the scene Saturday.
Beyrer called the death a homicide on Saturday, though police have still not released a definitive cause of death.
Police also did not say if the positive identification of the victim has led to any potential suspect or suspects.
On Saturday, Homicide Squad investigators scoured an area near the Huntington Tri Village Little League field. The park — situated in a triangle bound by Pulaski Road, Cuba Hill Road and Broadway Greenlawn — also was cordoned off with yellow crime-scene tape and closed by police.
Steven Blumenthal, who lives across the street from one of the fields, said he caught a glimpse of the body Saturday morning as the first officers pulled up, lights and sirens blaring. He said the man appeared to have suffered multiple stab wounds.
“It was very disturbing,” he said. “I don’t know if he was killed there, or left there. But to see this on my son’s baseball field is just shocking.”
His son, Micah, 17, said he still plays catch at the park, and grew up playing Little League feet from where the body was found.
“People are freaking out,” he said of the mood Saturday in the neighborhood surrounding the idyllic park. “It’s supposed to be a safe place. People bring their kids here.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Homicide Squad detectives at 631-852-6392 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 800-220-TIPS.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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