Elmont man charged with killing brother, dad

An Elmont man used his brother's gun to fatally shoot his father and the same brother at the family home, Nassau police said Thursday as they announced his arrest and continued the hunt for his missing mother.

Police said Dario Ormejuste, 24, killed the men Monday but was captured Wednesday at the home, on 238th Street, where the bodies lay for two days. He was captured when he emerged on the front lawn to smoke.

But the arrest of Ormejuste, 24, didn't allay an urgent mystery: the whereabouts of his mother, Mary Ormejuste, who went missing on Monday, the day that police say the shooting victims, Guerby Ormejuste, 30, and Bob Ormejuste, 65, were killed.

As the younger brother was arraigned on second-degree murder charges Thursday at First District Court, authorities continued to scramble to find the mother: deploying a police helicopter, alerting officers in multiple jurisdictions, and using license-plate readers to track down her and a family car, which is also missing, police said.

Detectives consider the mother's disappearance suspicious, said police spokesman Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone.

"We are trying to be optimistic that we will find the mother," said Det. Lt. John Azzata, head of the homicide squad.

At arraignment, Judge Tricia M. Ferrell followed prosecutor Zeena Abdi's suggestion that Dario Ormejuste be jailed without bail. Earlier, asked at police headquarters in Mineola by reporters whether he killed the men, Dario Ormejuste said: "I didn't do it."

Azzata said the squad charged Dario Ormejuste with the slayings based on forensic evidence and his own statements, but Azzata didn't elaborate. He said police are still looking for a motive.

The investigation began on Wednesday, when Bob Ormejuste's brother, Tex Ormejuste, went to the home to check on his relatives because Guerby Ormejuste, a correction officer, hadn't shown up to work at Rikers Island for two days.

Tex Ormejuste said he knocked on the door and heard music, which stopped right after. Police later detained Dario Ormejuste and found the bodies - Guerby in the basement and the father in the kitchen.

In a statement, the city Correction Department, for whom Guerby had worked since March 2007, mourned "a fine young correction officer with a bright career ahead of him."

With Gary Dymski