Authorities continue 'frustrating' search for East Garden City gunman
Police emerge from area near the Hudson River in Cold Spring looking for East Garden City shooting suspect Sang Ho Kim. (Sept. 27, 2013) Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Authorities hunting the suspect in a double shooting at an East Garden City business came up empty again Saturday despite a dragnet that has stretched from train stations and highways to rugged hiking trails.
Officials have issued bulletins to law enforcement agencies throughout the state, pored over hours of surveillance camera footage and used high-tech tools, such as infrared body heat sensors and cellphone signal tracking.
But after four days, they've been unable to capture the suspect, Sang Ho Kim, 63, of Queens.
Kim is accused of killing one man and seriously injuring another inside an office at Savenergy Inc., a lighting efficiency company, shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The disgruntled vendor left a voice-mail message threatening suicide two hours after the shooting, according to a family member. Police found his Honda Pilot sport utility vehicle that night in Cold Spring, a Putnam County village about 70 miles from the crime scene.
"He may have committed suicide, or he may have kept running and gotten very lucky," said a law enforcement official involved in the manhunt.
"He had to drive a long way. His face was everywhere. Logically, he should have been located, so it is frustrating that this is still unresolved," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A Nassau police spokeswoman declined to comment on the search Saturday, but on Friday officials said they were refocusing their efforts in New York City -- aided by the NYPD -- after having spent more than two days combing thousands of rugged acres in Putnam County by air, land and water.
An NYPD spokesman deferred questions about the investigation to Nassau authorities.
Police believe Kim shot and killed Zachariah Yong Jae Shin, 25, of Whitestone, Queens, an office worker at Savenergy, and seriously wounded John Hyung Choi of Woodmere, the founder and owner of the business located near Roosevelt Field mall.
Kim believed he had been cheated out of "a lot of money" by the company, according to a law enforcement source.
Choi remained in critical but stable condition Saturday at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, according to a hospital spokesman.
With Laura Figueroa
