24 ms·

Suspect is arrested in grisly killing of tech CEO Fahim Saleh

306 points by jbegley 6y ago

Firebrand 6y ago
> Detectives believe that the motive for the killing stemmed from Mr. Saleh having discovered that the assistant had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from him, despite the fact that Mr. Saleh had not reported the man and had set up what amounted to a repayment plan for him to return the money, one of the officials said. Wow, that’s really sad.
colmvp 6y ago
If what is reported is true, then that is really sad. Saleh's assistant Tyrese Haspil stole tens of thousands of dollars from him and instead of reporting him, he instead created a payment plan to be repaid. Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end.
- injb 6y ago
  > Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end. Yes, that's exactly what happened. Lesson: report the crime to the police first. If you want to show compassion and keep the law out of your business, you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later, and they'll be obliged to drop the charges. But the perpetrator will know that they'll be at the top of the list if anything happens to you.
  - kazagistar 6y ago
    You can be held in contempt and face jail time for not participating in an investigation. The fifth only applies to self incrimiation, not to incriminating others. Instead, just tell your friends and family.
    - mcny 6y ago
      > You can be held in contempt and face jail time for not participating in an investigation. I anal but isn’t that a pretty slippery slope? Like someone rapes me or tries to kill me and the law will throw me in prison for refusing to relive those moments? Also I’m pretty sure jstor didn’t want to press charges but the overzealous prosecutors did horrible things to Aaron Swartz anyways.
      - JKCalhoun 6y ago
        Bad, spell checker!
      - voxic11 6y ago
        Yes that is exactly the case. Often judges do order witnesses who express reluctance to testify into custody so that they can be sure that they will show up for the trial.
        bb611 6y ago
        This is extremely rare in the US judicial system, and prosectors tend not to like take cases where the victim or a key witness is no longer willing to testify. Yes, judges and lawyers for both parties in a case can legally compel witnesses to show up and testify, but doing so tends to damage the credibility of the witness, which can be fatal for their testimony.
        kazagistar 6y ago
        https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/05/16/chelsea-manning-sent-back-to-jail-for-refusing-to-testify-in-wikileaks-investigation/ https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/05/16/chelsea-... Its also used to hold political prisoners the government doesn't like in order to punish them.
      - tehwebguy 6y ago
        It's awful but it's real. The district attorney for New Orleans, Leon Cannizzaro, has come under fire for not only issuing "fake subpoenas" that threaten jail time, he's actually arrested the victims and kept them incarcerated until trial in some cases. He's still DA there, somehow.
  - redisman 6y ago
    How do you know he wouldn't have killed the guy in retaliation for reporting him to the police? I doubt he would be in prison.
    - injb 6y ago
      Well how would that have helped the perpetrator? He'd be the first person the police would look at. In most cases, retaliating for this kind of thing is not the rational thing to do. That doesn't mean it won't happen, but it's unlikely. When people retaliate against victims for reporting them, it's generally because there's a long game that they're concerned about. It could be an organized crime outfit that's concerned about it's future, it's reputation etc. Or an abusive partner who expects to be able to continue the abuse long term, so they want to "nip it in the bud" when someone talks to the police. So even though they may get in more trouble for the retaliation, they think it's worth it in the long term. The victims in these cases are usually captive in some sense. Imo, generally when you're the victim of an unexpected crime, you're safer reporting to the authorities than you would be keeping quiet about it.
  - JadeNB 6y ago
    > Lesson: report the crime to the police first. If you want to show compassion and keep the law out of your business, you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later, and they'll be obliged to drop the charges. But the perpetrator will know that they'll be at the top of the list if anything happens to you. I hope we still live in a world where "have fallback measures in case other people are going to murder you" doesn't need to be at the top of our contingency planning. Obviously it was here, and that's tragic, but I think and hope that most of us shouldn't need to learn to anticipate this as a likely, or even plausible, response.
    - C1sc0cat 6y ago
      For a lot of HNW individuals from the middle east this is part of their contingency planning. I worked at a Lebanese company in London and a lot of directors had the special versions of their cars, the ones with runflat tires and up armoured. I recall we had someone kidnaped in Beirut and they got him back quickly.
      - cutemonster 6y ago
        They had those cars in London? Or only in the middle east? Why do they need those cars in London? (HNW = High-net-worth individual, I didn't know)
        C1sc0cat 6y ago
        Yes in London as well there are companies that do these sort of modifications. I suspect Mark Zukerberg and Jeff Bezos have similar mods done.
    - injb 6y ago
      > I hope we still live in a world where "have fallback measures in case other people are going to murder you" doesn't need to be at the top of our contingency planning. Obviously it was here, and that's tragic, but I think and hope that most of us shouldn't need to learn to anticipate this as a likely, or even plausible, response. Sure, if you only consider murder, then it's unlikely (in America at least). But this same pattern happens for lesser things. Someone hits your car, and says "can we just settle this privately, I don't want my premium to go up", and you agree out of kindness, and a few days later you get a letter saying that they're making a claim against your insurance. You've missed your chance to get yourself on record as the victim. In this case, or similar cases, the guy might have done other things like accuse him of blackmail, or accuse him of being involved in the crime etc. Notwithstanding the risk of being compelled to testify, I would still take the route I mentioned above (report it but refuse to cooperate any further). I'd be surprised if the prosecutor decided to press ahead and grant you immunity to make you testify if you're not willing. You could retract your statement, which would signify that they cannot predict what you'll say at trial. Much more likely they'd just drop the case if the victim is unwilling...but I'm not a lawyer, I could be wrong.
  - throw7 6y ago
    > you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later I wish we had an option for restorative justice. This is exactly what the victim would have wanted.
  - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
    It's not like a white collar criminal who embezzled money wouldn't be out on bail. Considering the level of detail that didn't go into planning this murder I don't think involving the police would have afforded the victim any extra protection. The police are just men with guns that anybody can call. They're only really useful in any other situation where men with guns are useful, like breaking up a brawl.
    - Zanni 6y ago
      They're men with guns and notebooks. Which makes them much more useful than men with guns in creating a paper trail. If the suspect had known he'd been reported to the police, he probably would have guessed he'd be the cops first interview when his boss turned up dead.
  - Voloskaya 6y ago
    > you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later, and they'll be obliged to drop the charges This is completly false at least in the US where this story is happening. You don't decide to press or not to press charges. The presecution can decide to go ahead or not, no matter if you cooperate or not and no matter what you desire, they have no obligation whatsoever.
    - d883kd8 6y ago
      This is true but in a case where the bulk of the evidence is the victim's testimony, if the victim doesn't cooperate, the state will focus prosecution efforts on cases they have a better chance of winning
      - Voloskaya 6y ago
        I'm going on a limb by saying that in a case of accounting fraud, witness/victims testimony is not really key.
        haram_masala 6y ago
        If I were the defense attorney for an accused embezzler, I’d make a big deal about the fact that the victim refuses to testify.
- cryptica 6y ago
  >> Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end. The real lesson is that nobody should take the law into their own hands. Putting a criminal on a repayment program is a terrible idea especially with covid-19 economic crisis and so many people struggling to survive. During tough times, you should expect the worst of human nature.
  - smt88 6y ago
    Lots of people are forgiving of criminals and don't end up dead. Don't try to make an axiom out if a single, extreme data point.
- throw_m239339 6y ago
  > Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end. This. He wanted to give that guy a second chance by not involving the authorities, which shows how good hearted Saleh was. The murderer needs to spend the rest of his life in prison, for a crime he obviously premeditated.
  - dmos62 6y ago
    Innocent until proven guilty.
    - braythwayt 6y ago
      Well let’s agree that there is a murderer, and that having committed murder, the murder needs to receive the sharp end of the justice stick. depending upon your Ideas around morality, that means one or more of punishment because “an eye for an eye,” punishment because of some debatable ideas around deterrence, removal from society because the murder is a threat to commit more crimes, and/or rehabilitation because life in prison does nothing except enrich prison contractors at the expense of taxpayers.... Or because civilized societies try to rehabilitate wrongdoers wherever it is a realistic possibility. All that being said, this particular person is innocent until proven guilty. But ideally the murderer—whoever they are—will end up with one or more of these consequences, administered in a fair and transparent manner.
    - loeg 6y ago
      GP said "the murderer," not "the suspect."
      - justincredible 6y ago
        The implied assumption of his comment is that the two are one in the same.
    - lelanthran 6y ago
      > Innocent until proven guilty. Surely the murderer, by definition, isn't innocent? The suspect they have might be though.
- bdowling 6y ago
  > Saleh showed compassion Or Salah thought that he probably wouldn't get his money back if Haspil was arrested, so he made a deal with him.
aikinai 6y ago
> Detectives believe that the motive for the killing stemmed from Mr. Saleh having discovered that the assistant had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from him, despite the fact that Mr. Saleh had not reported the man and had set up what amounted to a repayment plan for him to return the money, one of the officials said. Amazing how far this is from all the early speculation. Also incredibly sad.
- gk1 6y ago
  What's amazing is how strongly people believe their own and others' speculation without any evidence. Look at what happened after the Boston Marathon bombing.
  - ta17711771 6y ago
    People discovered the perpetrators ties to the FBI? Nah, definitely not what you meant. But it should have been.
    - voisin 6y ago
      Can you provide context for those of us unclear on what you are referring to?
      - dleslie 6y ago
        Not the person you responded to, however: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2017/04/09/tamerlan-tsarnaev-fbi-informant/ https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2017/04/09/tamerlan-tsar... It shouldn't be surprising to find that bad people sometimes turn out to be under the observation of, or even interacting with, law enforcement.
  - aaron695 6y ago
    It was years ago. If it's a problem people would have moved to a better example, not a years old case. OSINT is a thing. It's also pretty amazing. It is something HN can't do though. Smart people let conspiracies rise to the top and fear making a mistake by correcting them. The Reddit/Boston Marathon meme is a gate-keeping meme on OSINT. Don't lynch mob ever, but also don't fear intelligent speculation.
Operyl 6y ago
> he built an app called PrankDial that allowed users to send prerecorded prank calls Oh wow .. I remember that site. Man, this entire situation just stinks :(.
s5300 6y ago
Y'know, just an anecdote, if I we're going to kill somebody for monetary revenge, I don't think I'd use an electric saw and dismember their body in a populated apartment complex. There are millions of ways the dude could've gotten clean if he just wanted him dead. Putting on my tinfoil hat, but maybe the whole steal money to make that look like the motive is part of a much larger setup...
- gk1 6y ago
  > maybe the whole steal money to make that look like the motive is part of a much larger setup... You can play this game ad infinitum. Maybe there was a larger setup, but what if that larger setup was just a false flag for a much larger setup? And what if that much larger setup was all part of an even larger setup? And what if...
  - s5300 6y ago
    If we're the simulation in which the setup happened... who made the simulation, and which God is...
- codezero 6y ago
  Also just as easy to imagine that some people have low functioning cognition, and act on impulse when pressured or cornered.
  - chillacy 6y ago
    When it all goes down it won't even matter how good your cognition is under normal circumstances, your brain is going into lizard brain mode. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack
    - codezero 6y ago
      Good point :)
- fjdjsmsm 6y ago
Jeremy1026 6y ago
Holy shit, this one hits closer to home. I worked for Fahim about 10 years ago. He was a pretty cool guy who was full of ideas. He will be missed.
sradman 6y ago
Also: > Detectives believe that the killer, dressed in a black three-piece suit, wearing a black mask and carrying a duffel bag, followed Mr. Saleh off an elevator in his building and into his apartment, a law enforcement official said. He used a Taser to immobilize Mr. Saleh and then stabbed him to death. It appears the security of the elevator opening directly into the victim's apartment and the COVID-19 crisis (the suspect was wearing a black mask) both played a role.
- intro-b 6y ago
  Since it appears the victim and perpetrator were strongly familiar with each other, the interaction could have been as simple as the perpetrator asking to meet up and suggesting that some of the money that he had been asked to repay was in the duffel bag — unless the victim was coerced or threatened beforehand, he may not have even realized his life was at risk until after the two of them arrived at his apartment.
  - xibalba 6y ago
    This is not the scenario suggested by evidence presented in the article. Might be worth a read ;) Police allege the accused 1) disguised self [article implies video evidence suggested victim did not recognize the accused], 2) followed victim onto elevator [faked pressing button for different floor], 3) followed victim off elevator, 4) incapacitated victim using taser [which, it turns out, spews owner identifying material when fired], 5) stabbed victim to death, 6) left scene [multiple times?] to procure materials for cleaning of crime scene, 7) may have been interrupted in the cleaning of crime scene by victim's sister who, 8) called police upon discovering brother's partially dismembered corpse.
    - snapetom 6y ago
      Sounds so weird. Anything short of a full mask, seems like there would be a high chance Saleh would recognize an assistant. This is someone you work with closely on a regular basis. Height, build, hair, skin complexion would still be visible under a half mask. On the flip side, I'd be nervous as hell about being recognized if I was the assistant.
jliptzin 6y ago
This is chilling considering I am currently looking for a personal assistant!
- voisin 6y ago
  Statistics show that it is still safer to have a personal assistant than to drive to the airport. /s
- w0mbat 6y ago
  David Spade's personal assistant famously attacked him with a stun gun, so be careful! Normally, though, the story is the reverse: a celeb mis-treated their personal assistant and is now being sued.
  - geoelectric 6y ago
    Or gets totally thrown under the bus by hostile testimony, like is happening to Amber Heard right now in the Heard/Depp trial. Her PA poked a bunch of holes in Heard's story after AH tried to publicly claim a personal tragedy of the PA's as her own for sympathy and lost all of the PA's goodwill. Don't screw with the person who knows your whole life in and out, I guess.
catacombs 6y ago
This sounds like something Patrick Bateman, from American Psycho, would do. However, in the book/movie, he doesn't get caught and didn't do this act for financial reasons.
- cvhashim 6y ago
  Wasn’t it all in his imagination? I haven’t seen that movie in years but he might have been developing schizophrenia.
  - gowld 6y ago
    It was intentionally ambiguous. It's a work of fiction, anyway, so all of it is in the imagination.
christiansakai 6y ago
Out of topic. When I met my (now) wife on online dating. A lot of her friends actually noted her to be careful, because there are a lot of crazy people here (NYC). I agree with that notion.
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  There are a lot of people in NYC, period. That's going to increase the base number of those with some flavor of mental instability, but I've never seen anything to suggest the ratio is different than other places.
  - christiansakai 6y ago
    It doesn't change what I said.
  - EForEndeavour 6y ago
    In general: "studies have shown that the risk for serious mental illness is generally higher in cities compared to rural areas" [1]. For NYC specifically: about 60k out of America's 500k homeless people live in New York City, which is the highest homeless population of any US city [2]. The "large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems" [3]. These sources confirm what I think a lot of people have seen for themselves through personal travel and experience: mental illness/instability correlates with urbanization. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374256/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374256/ [2] https://www.statista.com/chart/6949/the-us-cities-with-the-most-homeless-people/ https://www.statista.com/chart/6949/the-us-cities-with-the-m... [3] https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-homelessness-new-york-city/ https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-ho...
  - throw51319 6y ago
    NYC definitely attracts more intense and crazy people, and it also makes people crazy for validation and success. NYC = crazy I lived there.
- cvhashim 6y ago
lambda_dn 6y ago
I guess the lesson here is do background checks when hiring a PA.
- mchusma 6y ago
  I suspect this was this person's first chainsaw murder, so that wouldn't have shown up on a background check.
- chefgoldbluum 6y ago
  Other possible lessons: Don't get a PA, manage your own affairs. Keep your PA at a very comfortable distance. Take your privacy and security very seriously. Go to the police when someone steals of 10s of thousands of dollars from you. Do what you can to see that person charged to the full extent that the law allows. Don't come up with a payment plan for them. My own read is this guy was more concerned about being/appearing socially responsible and forwent good risk management. In the end tho, to end up dead and dismembered from this, this guy is still very unlucky.
  - driverdan 6y ago
    It sounds like you've never had the privilege of working with a good PA. They're a force multiplier and allow you to focus on bigger, more important issues. I'd have one if I could afford it.
- RspecMAuthortah 6y ago
  Or don't hire a 21 yr old with questionable background as your chief of staff dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  - google234123 6y ago
    I think the guy was hired when he was 16 actually.
    - haram_masala 6y ago
jl2718 6y ago
1. Why? Money. Works almost always. 2. Scary how little you can be killed for. 3. Scary how big of a risk to their own life people are willing to take for money. 4. Is it really money? Criminals are usually spendthrifts. All that stuff really doesn’t improve life much. Seems like status signals must be the real insatiable desire. 5. Rethinking, this seems like the work of a drug addict. The person has reasonable executive capacity (dopamine drive), but lacks empathy for others or their own future.
- GaryNumanVevo 6y ago
  The article mentions the stolen money was used to pay off family debts. He allegedly murdered Mr. Saleh after he was caught and fired.
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Very confusing to me when I read these comments. Here's the article's reference to debts: > One of the officials said Mr. Saleh had paid Mr. Haspil so well that he had been able to pay off the debts of several family members. The train of thought that takes that to the comment > The article mentions the stolen money was used to pay off family debts. He allegedly murdered Mr. Saleh after he was caught and fired. must make sense in some degree to the comment author Interesting that human information copying is subject to such large transcription errors over such a short period of time.
    - savrajsingh 6y ago
      Funny that the dna that gives us these abilities is copied almost perfectly in comparison
  - sushid 6y ago
    The article doesn't say that the stolen money was directly used to pay off family debts. It instead insinuates that the man was well-paid in the first place.
- khazhoux 6y ago
eggspurt 6y ago
Nigerian media have more info about the suspect https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23871447 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23871447
- xtracto 6y ago
  You are linking to your own submitted HN story linking to an article? Somehow this feels dirty & cheap. https://pageone.ng/2020/07/17/breaking-here-is-the-face-of-tyrese-devon-haspil-the-suspected-killer-of-fahim-saleh/ https://pageone.ng/2020/07/17/breaking-here-is-the-face-of-t...
  - mjfl 6y ago
    > You are linking to your own submitted HN story linking to an article? There's nothing wrong with this. Hacker News doesn't need karma police. Stop.
  - eggspurt 6y ago
    To the contrary, it’s a service to the community to link other versions of the same story with the right context, facilitating discussion. Also, you're actively suppressing African news sources, so I question your bias?
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- dopamean 6y ago
  This article contains no more info about the suspect than the Times' article.
  - eggspurt 6y ago
    You might have to get your vision checked.
steve76 6y ago
Computer programming used to have a natural barrier of entry. The need for thoughtful action and quiet study pushed the world away. As accessibility removes the barrier, bad people appear. Best jobs for felons today? Mobile app developer. Being violent or angry is a mental disability of it's own, the worst. Who cares for skill if the world dies and decays around it? Much more than "this just isn't for you" the world needs to be protected from awful people capable of much destruction. The world is full of these people, more than one would think, who look and act just like you but only bring ugliness and death.
leephillips 6y ago
I don’t understand the second-degree murder charge. Surely this was premeditated and planned, wasn’t it?
- voxic11 6y ago
  Its possible they only have hard evidence of second-degree murder at this stage, so rather than risk the guy being released due to lack of probable cause for first degree murder they can just bring a charge with fewer elements to prove and then add first degree murder later when they have gone over the evidence more. After all, maybe he didn't originally intend to kill the guy, he did start by tasing him.
  - FriendlyNormie 6y ago
    This is like debating whether a pitbull killing a child is “premeditated”. It’s nonsense. Niggers are natural born killers, when they misbehave they should be euthanized like any other untamed beast.
  - SilasX 6y ago
    He brought an electric saw though, right?
    - 1-more 6y ago
      he might have come back later with that.
    - mlyle 6y ago
      He bought it and cleaning products the day after.
  - leephillips 6y ago
    That makes sense. I guess it’s a commonplace strategy, as we often hear of charges being added or upgraded before an indictment.
- samfriedman 6y ago
marta_morena_25 6y ago
This sounds like a good old coverup lol. Seriously? The assistant? Because he stole tens of thousands of dollars and got a payment plan setup for it? And then what, he goes and uses an electric saw to dismember the body? Right. That's probably how it happened. It's much more likely that the assistant was either blackmailed or paid a much larger amount by a 3rd party to carry this out, potentially stealing the money from him to provide an alternative motive. The way the crime was carried out might be some signature card that people involved will recognized and see as a warning.
- d33lio 6y ago
  I hate to admit it, as someone who previously lived with a friend who took mental health nose-dive and ended up a conspiracy theory nut, the practical side of my mind leads me to support this kind of theory. Of course, we'll never know for sure, but how many PA's have cartel hit man level knowledge of disposing a body? The thought that someone would kill someone with this level of professionalism without external leverage is questionable. Especially since only tens of thousands of dollars was involved in the alleged strife. If I were looking for a perfect fall-guy, this is a home run of a way to knock someone off and then have a "lovers revenge" type cover sweep everything out of the limelight.
  - camjohnson26 6y ago
    He didn’t dispose of the body, and the article makes it clear that he returned the next day, after killing him on Monday.
    - d33lio 6y ago
      Having read that now, I'm starting to think he was on some serious drugs the day it happened (most people aren't going to be able to stomach chopping up a human, led alone an animal) and then slowly lost it a number of days later.
      - christiansakai 6y ago
cvhashim 6y ago
This is sad. I’m thinking the assistant was planning on sawing the ceo up and dump him in a river. Which doesn’t make sense. He would be a suspect on the list if Saleh had disapeared. Unless he planned to make out like a bandit into a country that doesn’t extradite criminals.
- NearAP 6y ago
  I guess the theory would be that - if the body was never discovered, the police wouldn't be able to prove a crime occurred. They would simply have questioned a couple of people and if none of them 'broke', they would have been let go
- haram_masala 6y ago
  My theory is that the assailant was impulsive and/or stupid.
booleandilemma 6y ago
So much for it being “a professional job”. It just makes our law enforcement people look incompetent.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
jb775 6y ago
There are cameras everywhere nowadays. I don't understand how someone thinks they can realistically get away with something like this, especially in the middle of NYC in broad daylight.
- Axsuul 6y ago
  Do cameras actually matter when it's socially acceptable now to wear a mask?
m3kw9 6y ago
A seemingly normal person goes and dismember his colleague after things doesn’t go his way when he when in for a scam. Why is it not 1st degree murder?
- injb 6y ago
  It'll probably be upgraded later when they finish their investigation. The priority now is keeping him in custody, and for that they may have to present evidence to a judge. So they're going with what they know they can prove right now.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Why is it not 1st degree murder? Because with initial charges, when you've got pretty solid probable cause for intent (2nd degree), there's no reason to take any risk at the probable cause hearing with premeditation (1st degree); if you've got evidence that you think can get a conviction on that as you investigate, upgrading charges is easy.
  - bufferoverflow 6y ago
    How in the world is it not premeditated??? He went to his place. It's not like he randomly stumbled into Fahim and killed him on the spot.
    - henryfjordan 6y ago
      You have to prove the accused went there with the intention to kill. He could have gone with the intention to talk about their debt situation, but then saw the victim and went red with rage or something like that. It's really, really hard to get prove exactly what someone was thinking. You need a very concrete piece of evidence that proves intent, just going somewhere is not going to be enough.
      - omarchowdhury 6y ago
        > just going somewhere is not going to be enough. How about going there completely disguised, and pretending to go to a different floor in the building than Fahim? If he went there to talk to him, he wouldn't press a button in the elevator for a different apartment.
blueprint 6y ago
can we please stop linking nytimes. their paywall doesn't even render properly.
- coolspot 6y ago
  https://archive.is/D1sbz https://archive.is/D1sbz
kindatrue 6y ago
Tidbit from the article: He founded PrankDial.com and it's a $10M business. I'd never heard of it. Wow... $10M run rate for a website that sends prank calls to others? Like "Chinese Apology" "Indian Tech Support"? Talk about a site that should be cancelled: https://www.prankdial.com/?category=services https://www.prankdial.com/?category=services
cafard 6y ago
Some years ago in Bethesda, Maryland, the manager of a Lululemon store was murdered by her assistant after she confronted the woman about money gone missing. The assistant gave herself some minor injuries and tried to sell the police a story of a man breaking in and attacking them. The story fell apart pretty quickly.
- runawaybottle 6y ago
  https://youtu.be/ABugiItaz7Y https://youtu.be/ABugiItaz7Y Good podcast on it if anyone cares.
canada_dry 6y ago
> Police identified Haspil through “anti-felon identification cards that were spewed like confetti in Saleh’s apartment,” NBC New York reported. Can someone explain what this is? I assumed the guy would quickly be suspect #1 once they combed through Saleh's computer and found discussions about the stolen money. What's this "anti-felon identification cards" reference about?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- mconbere 6y ago
  This was new to me as well. The slow motion video at the bottom of this Mental Floss article helped me visualize what they were discussing. https://www.mentalfloss.com/uk/law/31712/why-is-there-confetti-in-so-many-taser-guns https://www.mentalfloss.com/uk/law/31712/why-is-there-confet...
- csomar 6y ago
  I think this is the major point but it's side-tracked from the writer. Here is an interesting tidbit: > In order to track the weapon’s use, the cartridges containing the projectile darts are given serial numbers. When fired, the projectiles are accompanied by 20 to 30 vibrantly colored circular paper tags, a little smaller than one-quarter inch in diameter. The tag is known as an AFID with each AFID bearing a serial number printed on it corresponding to the serial number of the cartridge from which it was fired. Despite the bright colors of the AFIDs, their size makes them very difficult to detect. This presentation demonstrates a method for locating the released AFIDs using an alternate light source. tl;dr: Tasers' use is traceable and identifiable. The assistant probably didn't know that.
  - moioci 6y ago
    Maybe that explains the portable vacuum. Seems like it wasn't fully effective.
    - apple4ever 6y ago
camjohnson26 6y ago
This is utterly tragic. Not sure that there’s a lesson to be learned other than life is short and people can be unpredictable. Must be so hard for his sister and family.
- RobRivera 6y ago
  My takeaway is if I discover a crime being committed by someone I don't know well, report and cut all contact. Upgrade Security. Be alert. This whole situation is a tragedy, and his willingness to impart reason with the unreasonable cost him his life.
pdevr 6y ago
The alleged killer won first place (along with another person) for website design in a Future Business Leaders of America competition held in Rochester. [1] Stunning, sad and macabre. Nothing else to say. [1] http://www.vschsd.org/News/Story.aspx?id=35361 http://www.vschsd.org/News/Story.aspx?id=35361
neonate 6y ago
https://archive.is/4gcZO https://archive.is/4gcZO
grugagag 6y ago
Tyrese Haspil is most likely a psychopath. Psychopaths are usually attracted to empathetic (nice,loving and giving) people. They see all people as a means to their goals. Psychopaths fake emotions but have none, only goals. There are a lot of hi I.Q. psychopaths in big business so all beware of who you trust. Not all of them are murderous, just a tiny minority, but all of them are manipulative and backstabbing, they can't help it.
sowellecho 6y ago
I checked the top articles to see if there is a photo of the suspect. And then I did find one eventually, after a few more searches. The coverage of this story reminds me of this tweet: https://twitter.com/ComicDaveSmith/status/1279870366773661696 https://twitter.com/ComicDaveSmith/status/127987036677366169...
- anonymous38529 6y ago
  The DailyMail published his photo, and also, even better, doesn't have a paywall: > https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-New-York-tech-entrepreneurs-personal-assistant-arrested.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-Ne... The NYT wouldn't have hesitated to publish Tyrese's photo had he been white and Fahim had been black. Probably their respective races would have even been mentioned in the headline.
  - anonymous38529 6y ago
    What is the point of downvoting an obvious temp account, other than to censor an opinion you disagree with but evidently can't refute? Taking GoodBoyPoints away from me isn't going to change my mind (viz. that leftwing MSM outlets only reports race when it suits their narrative).
  - erulabs 6y ago
    You’re being downvoted because this is unhelpful speculation which adds nothing to the discussion - be it true or untrue. If the response to what you say is “OK...”, what you have said is not terribly interesting.
    - summitsummit 6y ago
      how do you downvote on here?
      - mattm 6y ago
        You need to have a certain amount of karma before it appears
anonymous38529 6y ago
Non-paywalled article: > https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-New-York-tech-entrepreneurs-personal-assistant-arrested.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-Ne...
interesting_att 6y ago
Remember this is an ALLEGATION. I knew Fahim personally. I know people who spoke to him the day of about this very issue, so I have some information that most people don't. I absolutely do not believe this kid did it. Fahim was well liked in Nigeria but he was disrupting a dangerous market.
- dahfizz 6y ago
  Is there anything you can share? Tyrese had recently purchased and signed for the taser that was used in the attack. He was at home depot buying cleaning supplies right after the murder. That's some very significant evidence.
  - adventured 6y ago
    All of that combined with the monetary connection, it's rather extraordinarily strong evidence.
- truethoughts 6y ago
  You don't have any information. Give me a break. There is overwhelming evidence implicating the suspect but because of your personal dislike or jealousy of Fahim or a ridiculous desire for attention, you're willing to push nonsense anonymously on the internet.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- NearAP 6y ago
  You have no evidence for this insinuation. 1) For one thing, he was not the only running a well funded motorcycle transportation business in Nigeria. 2) He had already pivoted into last-mile delivery and again he was not the only one running a well funded one 3) Let's even assume his motorcycle transportation was disrupting a dangerous market, it is basically the same market that Uber and those before Uber disrupted in Nigeria and nothing like this happened
- randompwd 6y ago
xwdv 6y ago
Pay. Your. Fucking. Debts.
alkibiades 6y ago
what are the chances he didn’t report him for stealing due to BLM? and that ended up being the cause of his death?
- croissants 6y ago
  What are the chances? None of us know, so speculating on it seems both ghoulish and pointless.
john-radio 6y ago
That's good. The NY Times did not help this situation, or the hundreds of other potential situations that may or may not evolve in the future, with their breathless coverage of this "likely the work of a professional" job.
HelpEveryone 6y ago
Any startups that are protecting people from being murdered? What type of device would be able to sound an alarm and save his life?

306 points by jbegley 6y ago

> Detectives believe that the motive for the killing stemmed from Mr. Saleh having discovered that the assistant had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from him, despite the fact that Mr. Saleh had not reported the man and had set up what amounted to a repayment plan for him to return the money, one of the officials said. Wow, that’s really sad.

colmvp 6y ago

If what is reported is true, then that is really sad. Saleh's assistant Tyrese Haspil stole tens of thousands of dollars from him and instead of reporting him, he instead created a payment plan to be repaid. Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end.

injb 6y ago
> Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end. Yes, that's exactly what happened. Lesson: report the crime to the police first. If you want to show compassion and keep the law out of your business, you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later, and they'll be obliged to drop the charges. But the perpetrator will know that they'll be at the top of the list if anything happens to you.
- kazagistar 6y ago
  You can be held in contempt and face jail time for not participating in an investigation. The fifth only applies to self incrimiation, not to incriminating others. Instead, just tell your friends and family.
  - mcny 6y ago
    > You can be held in contempt and face jail time for not participating in an investigation. I anal but isn’t that a pretty slippery slope? Like someone rapes me or tries to kill me and the law will throw me in prison for refusing to relive those moments? Also I’m pretty sure jstor didn’t want to press charges but the overzealous prosecutors did horrible things to Aaron Swartz anyways.
    - JKCalhoun 6y ago
      Bad, spell checker!
    - voxic11 6y ago
      Yes that is exactly the case. Often judges do order witnesses who express reluctance to testify into custody so that they can be sure that they will show up for the trial.
      - bb611 6y ago
        This is extremely rare in the US judicial system, and prosectors tend not to like take cases where the victim or a key witness is no longer willing to testify. Yes, judges and lawyers for both parties in a case can legally compel witnesses to show up and testify, but doing so tends to damage the credibility of the witness, which can be fatal for their testimony.
        kazagistar 6y ago
        https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/05/16/chelsea-manning-sent-back-to-jail-for-refusing-to-testify-in-wikileaks-investigation/ https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/05/16/chelsea-... Its also used to hold political prisoners the government doesn't like in order to punish them.
    - tehwebguy 6y ago
      It's awful but it's real. The district attorney for New Orleans, Leon Cannizzaro, has come under fire for not only issuing "fake subpoenas" that threaten jail time, he's actually arrested the victims and kept them incarcerated until trial in some cases. He's still DA there, somehow.
- redisman 6y ago
  How do you know he wouldn't have killed the guy in retaliation for reporting him to the police? I doubt he would be in prison.
  - injb 6y ago
    Well how would that have helped the perpetrator? He'd be the first person the police would look at. In most cases, retaliating for this kind of thing is not the rational thing to do. That doesn't mean it won't happen, but it's unlikely. When people retaliate against victims for reporting them, it's generally because there's a long game that they're concerned about. It could be an organized crime outfit that's concerned about it's future, it's reputation etc. Or an abusive partner who expects to be able to continue the abuse long term, so they want to "nip it in the bud" when someone talks to the police. So even though they may get in more trouble for the retaliation, they think it's worth it in the long term. The victims in these cases are usually captive in some sense. Imo, generally when you're the victim of an unexpected crime, you're safer reporting to the authorities than you would be keeping quiet about it.
- JadeNB 6y ago
  > Lesson: report the crime to the police first. If you want to show compassion and keep the law out of your business, you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later, and they'll be obliged to drop the charges. But the perpetrator will know that they'll be at the top of the list if anything happens to you. I hope we still live in a world where "have fallback measures in case other people are going to murder you" doesn't need to be at the top of our contingency planning. Obviously it was here, and that's tragic, but I think and hope that most of us shouldn't need to learn to anticipate this as a likely, or even plausible, response.
  - C1sc0cat 6y ago
    For a lot of HNW individuals from the middle east this is part of their contingency planning. I worked at a Lebanese company in London and a lot of directors had the special versions of their cars, the ones with runflat tires and up armoured. I recall we had someone kidnaped in Beirut and they got him back quickly.
    - cutemonster 6y ago
      They had those cars in London? Or only in the middle east? Why do they need those cars in London? (HNW = High-net-worth individual, I didn't know)
      - C1sc0cat 6y ago
        Yes in London as well there are companies that do these sort of modifications. I suspect Mark Zukerberg and Jeff Bezos have similar mods done.
  - injb 6y ago
    > I hope we still live in a world where "have fallback measures in case other people are going to murder you" doesn't need to be at the top of our contingency planning. Obviously it was here, and that's tragic, but I think and hope that most of us shouldn't need to learn to anticipate this as a likely, or even plausible, response. Sure, if you only consider murder, then it's unlikely (in America at least). But this same pattern happens for lesser things. Someone hits your car, and says "can we just settle this privately, I don't want my premium to go up", and you agree out of kindness, and a few days later you get a letter saying that they're making a claim against your insurance. You've missed your chance to get yourself on record as the victim. In this case, or similar cases, the guy might have done other things like accuse him of blackmail, or accuse him of being involved in the crime etc. Notwithstanding the risk of being compelled to testify, I would still take the route I mentioned above (report it but refuse to cooperate any further). I'd be surprised if the prosecutor decided to press ahead and grant you immunity to make you testify if you're not willing. You could retract your statement, which would signify that they cannot predict what you'll say at trial. Much more likely they'd just drop the case if the victim is unwilling...but I'm not a lawyer, I could be wrong.
- throw7 6y ago
  > you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later I wish we had an option for restorative justice. This is exactly what the victim would have wanted.
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  It's not like a white collar criminal who embezzled money wouldn't be out on bail. Considering the level of detail that didn't go into planning this murder I don't think involving the police would have afforded the victim any extra protection. The police are just men with guns that anybody can call. They're only really useful in any other situation where men with guns are useful, like breaking up a brawl.
  - Zanni 6y ago
    They're men with guns and notebooks. Which makes them much more useful than men with guns in creating a paper trail. If the suspect had known he'd been reported to the police, he probably would have guessed he'd be the cops first interview when his boss turned up dead.
- Voloskaya 6y ago
  > you can always refuse to cooperate with the investigation later, and they'll be obliged to drop the charges This is completly false at least in the US where this story is happening. You don't decide to press or not to press charges. The presecution can decide to go ahead or not, no matter if you cooperate or not and no matter what you desire, they have no obligation whatsoever.
  - d883kd8 6y ago
    This is true but in a case where the bulk of the evidence is the victim's testimony, if the victim doesn't cooperate, the state will focus prosecution efforts on cases they have a better chance of winning
    - Voloskaya 6y ago
      I'm going on a limb by saying that in a case of accounting fraud, witness/victims testimony is not really key.
      - haram_masala 6y ago
        If I were the defense attorney for an accused embezzler, I’d make a big deal about the fact that the victim refuses to testify.
cryptica 6y ago
>> Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end. The real lesson is that nobody should take the law into their own hands. Putting a criminal on a repayment program is a terrible idea especially with covid-19 economic crisis and so many people struggling to survive. During tough times, you should expect the worst of human nature.
- smt88 6y ago
  Lots of people are forgiving of criminals and don't end up dead. Don't try to make an axiom out if a single, extreme data point.
throw_m239339 6y ago
> Saleh showed compassion and that may have been a reason why he ended up dying in the end. This. He wanted to give that guy a second chance by not involving the authorities, which shows how good hearted Saleh was. The murderer needs to spend the rest of his life in prison, for a crime he obviously premeditated.
- dmos62 6y ago
  Innocent until proven guilty.
  - braythwayt 6y ago
    Well let’s agree that there is a murderer, and that having committed murder, the murder needs to receive the sharp end of the justice stick. depending upon your Ideas around morality, that means one or more of punishment because “an eye for an eye,” punishment because of some debatable ideas around deterrence, removal from society because the murder is a threat to commit more crimes, and/or rehabilitation because life in prison does nothing except enrich prison contractors at the expense of taxpayers.... Or because civilized societies try to rehabilitate wrongdoers wherever it is a realistic possibility. All that being said, this particular person is innocent until proven guilty. But ideally the murderer—whoever they are—will end up with one or more of these consequences, administered in a fair and transparent manner.
  - loeg 6y ago
    GP said "the murderer," not "the suspect."
    - justincredible 6y ago
      The implied assumption of his comment is that the two are one in the same.
  - lelanthran 6y ago
    > Innocent until proven guilty. Surely the murderer, by definition, isn't innocent? The suspect they have might be though.
bdowling 6y ago
> Saleh showed compassion Or Salah thought that he probably wouldn't get his money back if Haspil was arrested, so he made a deal with him.

aikinai 6y ago

gk1 6y ago
What's amazing is how strongly people believe their own and others' speculation without any evidence. Look at what happened after the Boston Marathon bombing.
- ta17711771 6y ago
  People discovered the perpetrators ties to the FBI? Nah, definitely not what you meant. But it should have been.
  - voisin 6y ago
    Can you provide context for those of us unclear on what you are referring to?
    - dleslie 6y ago
      Not the person you responded to, however: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2017/04/09/tamerlan-tsarnaev-fbi-informant/ https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2017/04/09/tamerlan-tsar... It shouldn't be surprising to find that bad people sometimes turn out to be under the observation of, or even interacting with, law enforcement.
- aaron695 6y ago
  It was years ago. If it's a problem people would have moved to a better example, not a years old case. OSINT is a thing. It's also pretty amazing. It is something HN can't do though. Smart people let conspiracies rise to the top and fear making a mistake by correcting them. The Reddit/Boston Marathon meme is a gate-keeping meme on OSINT. Don't lynch mob ever, but also don't fear intelligent speculation.

Operyl 6y ago

> he built an app called PrankDial that allowed users to send prerecorded prank calls Oh wow .. I remember that site. Man, this entire situation just stinks :(.

s5300 6y ago

Y'know, just an anecdote, if I we're going to kill somebody for monetary revenge, I don't think I'd use an electric saw and dismember their body in a populated apartment complex. There are millions of ways the dude could've gotten clean if he just wanted him dead. Putting on my tinfoil hat, but maybe the whole steal money to make that look like the motive is part of a much larger setup...

gk1 6y ago
> maybe the whole steal money to make that look like the motive is part of a much larger setup... You can play this game ad infinitum. Maybe there was a larger setup, but what if that larger setup was just a false flag for a much larger setup? And what if that much larger setup was all part of an even larger setup? And what if...
- s5300 6y ago
  If we're the simulation in which the setup happened... who made the simulation, and which God is...
codezero 6y ago
Also just as easy to imagine that some people have low functioning cognition, and act on impulse when pressured or cornered.
- chillacy 6y ago
  When it all goes down it won't even matter how good your cognition is under normal circumstances, your brain is going into lizard brain mode. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack
  - codezero 6y ago
    Good point :)
fjdjsmsm 6y ago

Jeremy1026 6y ago

Holy shit, this one hits closer to home. I worked for Fahim about 10 years ago. He was a pretty cool guy who was full of ideas. He will be missed.

sradman 6y ago

Also: > Detectives believe that the killer, dressed in a black three-piece suit, wearing a black mask and carrying a duffel bag, followed Mr. Saleh off an elevator in his building and into his apartment, a law enforcement official said. He used a Taser to immobilize Mr. Saleh and then stabbed him to death. It appears the security of the elevator opening directly into the victim's apartment and the COVID-19 crisis (the suspect was wearing a black mask) both played a role.

intro-b 6y ago
Since it appears the victim and perpetrator were strongly familiar with each other, the interaction could have been as simple as the perpetrator asking to meet up and suggesting that some of the money that he had been asked to repay was in the duffel bag — unless the victim was coerced or threatened beforehand, he may not have even realized his life was at risk until after the two of them arrived at his apartment.
- xibalba 6y ago
  This is not the scenario suggested by evidence presented in the article. Might be worth a read ;) Police allege the accused 1) disguised self [article implies video evidence suggested victim did not recognize the accused], 2) followed victim onto elevator [faked pressing button for different floor], 3) followed victim off elevator, 4) incapacitated victim using taser [which, it turns out, spews owner identifying material when fired], 5) stabbed victim to death, 6) left scene [multiple times?] to procure materials for cleaning of crime scene, 7) may have been interrupted in the cleaning of crime scene by victim's sister who, 8) called police upon discovering brother's partially dismembered corpse.
  - snapetom 6y ago
    Sounds so weird. Anything short of a full mask, seems like there would be a high chance Saleh would recognize an assistant. This is someone you work with closely on a regular basis. Height, build, hair, skin complexion would still be visible under a half mask. On the flip side, I'd be nervous as hell about being recognized if I was the assistant.

jliptzin 6y ago

This is chilling considering I am currently looking for a personal assistant!

voisin 6y ago
Statistics show that it is still safer to have a personal assistant than to drive to the airport. /s
w0mbat 6y ago
David Spade's personal assistant famously attacked him with a stun gun, so be careful! Normally, though, the story is the reverse: a celeb mis-treated their personal assistant and is now being sued.
- geoelectric 6y ago
  Or gets totally thrown under the bus by hostile testimony, like is happening to Amber Heard right now in the Heard/Depp trial. Her PA poked a bunch of holes in Heard's story after AH tried to publicly claim a personal tragedy of the PA's as her own for sympathy and lost all of the PA's goodwill. Don't screw with the person who knows your whole life in and out, I guess.

catacombs 6y ago

This sounds like something Patrick Bateman, from American Psycho, would do. However, in the book/movie, he doesn't get caught and didn't do this act for financial reasons.

cvhashim 6y ago
Wasn’t it all in his imagination? I haven’t seen that movie in years but he might have been developing schizophrenia.
- gowld 6y ago
  It was intentionally ambiguous. It's a work of fiction, anyway, so all of it is in the imagination.

christiansakai 6y ago

Out of topic. When I met my (now) wife on online dating. A lot of her friends actually noted her to be careful, because there are a lot of crazy people here (NYC). I agree with that notion.

shadowgovt 6y ago
There are a lot of people in NYC, period. That's going to increase the base number of those with some flavor of mental instability, but I've never seen anything to suggest the ratio is different than other places.
- christiansakai 6y ago
  It doesn't change what I said.
- EForEndeavour 6y ago
  In general: "studies have shown that the risk for serious mental illness is generally higher in cities compared to rural areas" [1]. For NYC specifically: about 60k out of America's 500k homeless people live in New York City, which is the highest homeless population of any US city [2]. The "large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems" [3]. These sources confirm what I think a lot of people have seen for themselves through personal travel and experience: mental illness/instability correlates with urbanization. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374256/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374256/ [2] https://www.statista.com/chart/6949/the-us-cities-with-the-most-homeless-people/ https://www.statista.com/chart/6949/the-us-cities-with-the-m... [3] https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-homelessness-new-york-city/ https://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/basic-facts-about-ho...
- throw51319 6y ago
  NYC definitely attracts more intense and crazy people, and it also makes people crazy for validation and success. NYC = crazy I lived there.
cvhashim 6y ago

lambda_dn 6y ago

I guess the lesson here is do background checks when hiring a PA.

mchusma 6y ago
I suspect this was this person's first chainsaw murder, so that wouldn't have shown up on a background check.
chefgoldbluum 6y ago
Other possible lessons: Don't get a PA, manage your own affairs. Keep your PA at a very comfortable distance. Take your privacy and security very seriously. Go to the police when someone steals of 10s of thousands of dollars from you. Do what you can to see that person charged to the full extent that the law allows. Don't come up with a payment plan for them. My own read is this guy was more concerned about being/appearing socially responsible and forwent good risk management. In the end tho, to end up dead and dismembered from this, this guy is still very unlucky.
- driverdan 6y ago
  It sounds like you've never had the privilege of working with a good PA. They're a force multiplier and allow you to focus on bigger, more important issues. I'd have one if I could afford it.
RspecMAuthortah 6y ago
Or don't hire a 21 yr old with questionable background as your chief of staff dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- google234123 6y ago
  I think the guy was hired when he was 16 actually.
  - haram_masala 6y ago

jl2718 6y ago

1. Why? Money. Works almost always. 2. Scary how little you can be killed for. 3. Scary how big of a risk to their own life people are willing to take for money. 4. Is it really money? Criminals are usually spendthrifts. All that stuff really doesn’t improve life much. Seems like status signals must be the real insatiable desire. 5. Rethinking, this seems like the work of a drug addict. The person has reasonable executive capacity (dopamine drive), but lacks empathy for others or their own future.

GaryNumanVevo 6y ago
The article mentions the stolen money was used to pay off family debts. He allegedly murdered Mr. Saleh after he was caught and fired.
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Very confusing to me when I read these comments. Here's the article's reference to debts: > One of the officials said Mr. Saleh had paid Mr. Haspil so well that he had been able to pay off the debts of several family members. The train of thought that takes that to the comment > The article mentions the stolen money was used to pay off family debts. He allegedly murdered Mr. Saleh after he was caught and fired. must make sense in some degree to the comment author Interesting that human information copying is subject to such large transcription errors over such a short period of time.
  - savrajsingh 6y ago
    Funny that the dna that gives us these abilities is copied almost perfectly in comparison
- sushid 6y ago
  The article doesn't say that the stolen money was directly used to pay off family debts. It instead insinuates that the man was well-paid in the first place.
khazhoux 6y ago

eggspurt 6y ago

Nigerian media have more info about the suspect https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23871447 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23871447

xtracto 6y ago
You are linking to your own submitted HN story linking to an article? Somehow this feels dirty & cheap. https://pageone.ng/2020/07/17/breaking-here-is-the-face-of-tyrese-devon-haspil-the-suspected-killer-of-fahim-saleh/ https://pageone.ng/2020/07/17/breaking-here-is-the-face-of-t...
- mjfl 6y ago
  > You are linking to your own submitted HN story linking to an article? There's nothing wrong with this. Hacker News doesn't need karma police. Stop.
- eggspurt 6y ago
  To the contrary, it’s a service to the community to link other versions of the same story with the right context, facilitating discussion. Also, you're actively suppressing African news sources, so I question your bias?
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
dopamean 6y ago
This article contains no more info about the suspect than the Times' article.
- eggspurt 6y ago
  You might have to get your vision checked.

steve76 6y ago

Computer programming used to have a natural barrier of entry. The need for thoughtful action and quiet study pushed the world away. As accessibility removes the barrier, bad people appear. Best jobs for felons today? Mobile app developer. Being violent or angry is a mental disability of it's own, the worst. Who cares for skill if the world dies and decays around it? Much more than "this just isn't for you" the world needs to be protected from awful people capable of much destruction. The world is full of these people, more than one would think, who look and act just like you but only bring ugliness and death.

leephillips 6y ago

I don’t understand the second-degree murder charge. Surely this was premeditated and planned, wasn’t it?

voxic11 6y ago
Its possible they only have hard evidence of second-degree murder at this stage, so rather than risk the guy being released due to lack of probable cause for first degree murder they can just bring a charge with fewer elements to prove and then add first degree murder later when they have gone over the evidence more. After all, maybe he didn't originally intend to kill the guy, he did start by tasing him.
- FriendlyNormie 6y ago
  This is like debating whether a pitbull killing a child is “premeditated”. It’s nonsense. Niggers are natural born killers, when they misbehave they should be euthanized like any other untamed beast.
- SilasX 6y ago
  He brought an electric saw though, right?
  - 1-more 6y ago
    he might have come back later with that.
  - mlyle 6y ago
    He bought it and cleaning products the day after.
- leephillips 6y ago
  That makes sense. I guess it’s a commonplace strategy, as we often hear of charges being added or upgraded before an indictment.
samfriedman 6y ago

marta_morena_25 6y ago

This sounds like a good old coverup lol. Seriously? The assistant? Because he stole tens of thousands of dollars and got a payment plan setup for it? And then what, he goes and uses an electric saw to dismember the body? Right. That's probably how it happened. It's much more likely that the assistant was either blackmailed or paid a much larger amount by a 3rd party to carry this out, potentially stealing the money from him to provide an alternative motive. The way the crime was carried out might be some signature card that people involved will recognized and see as a warning.

d33lio 6y ago
I hate to admit it, as someone who previously lived with a friend who took mental health nose-dive and ended up a conspiracy theory nut, the practical side of my mind leads me to support this kind of theory. Of course, we'll never know for sure, but how many PA's have cartel hit man level knowledge of disposing a body? The thought that someone would kill someone with this level of professionalism without external leverage is questionable. Especially since only tens of thousands of dollars was involved in the alleged strife. If I were looking for a perfect fall-guy, this is a home run of a way to knock someone off and then have a "lovers revenge" type cover sweep everything out of the limelight.
- camjohnson26 6y ago
  He didn’t dispose of the body, and the article makes it clear that he returned the next day, after killing him on Monday.
  - d33lio 6y ago
    Having read that now, I'm starting to think he was on some serious drugs the day it happened (most people aren't going to be able to stomach chopping up a human, led alone an animal) and then slowly lost it a number of days later.
    - christiansakai 6y ago

cvhashim 6y ago

This is sad. I’m thinking the assistant was planning on sawing the ceo up and dump him in a river. Which doesn’t make sense. He would be a suspect on the list if Saleh had disapeared. Unless he planned to make out like a bandit into a country that doesn’t extradite criminals.

NearAP 6y ago
I guess the theory would be that - if the body was never discovered, the police wouldn't be able to prove a crime occurred. They would simply have questioned a couple of people and if none of them 'broke', they would have been let go
haram_masala 6y ago
My theory is that the assailant was impulsive and/or stupid.

booleandilemma 6y ago

So much for it being “a professional job”. It just makes our law enforcement people look incompetent.

deleted 6y ago
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jb775 6y ago

There are cameras everywhere nowadays. I don't understand how someone thinks they can realistically get away with something like this, especially in the middle of NYC in broad daylight.

Axsuul 6y ago
Do cameras actually matter when it's socially acceptable now to wear a mask?

m3kw9 6y ago

A seemingly normal person goes and dismember his colleague after things doesn’t go his way when he when in for a scam. Why is it not 1st degree murder?

injb 6y ago
It'll probably be upgraded later when they finish their investigation. The priority now is keeping him in custody, and for that they may have to present evidence to a judge. So they're going with what they know they can prove right now.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Why is it not 1st degree murder? Because with initial charges, when you've got pretty solid probable cause for intent (2nd degree), there's no reason to take any risk at the probable cause hearing with premeditation (1st degree); if you've got evidence that you think can get a conviction on that as you investigate, upgrading charges is easy.
- bufferoverflow 6y ago
  How in the world is it not premeditated??? He went to his place. It's not like he randomly stumbled into Fahim and killed him on the spot.
  - henryfjordan 6y ago
    You have to prove the accused went there with the intention to kill. He could have gone with the intention to talk about their debt situation, but then saw the victim and went red with rage or something like that. It's really, really hard to get prove exactly what someone was thinking. You need a very concrete piece of evidence that proves intent, just going somewhere is not going to be enough.
    - omarchowdhury 6y ago
      > just going somewhere is not going to be enough. How about going there completely disguised, and pretending to go to a different floor in the building than Fahim? If he went there to talk to him, he wouldn't press a button in the elevator for a different apartment.

blueprint 6y ago

can we please stop linking nytimes. their paywall doesn't even render properly.

coolspot 6y ago
https://archive.is/D1sbz https://archive.is/D1sbz

kindatrue 6y ago

Tidbit from the article: He founded PrankDial.com and it's a $10M business. I'd never heard of it. Wow... $10M run rate for a website that sends prank calls to others? Like "Chinese Apology" "Indian Tech Support"? Talk about a site that should be cancelled: https://www.prankdial.com/?category=services https://www.prankdial.com/?category=services

cafard 6y ago

Some years ago in Bethesda, Maryland, the manager of a Lululemon store was murdered by her assistant after she confronted the woman about money gone missing. The assistant gave herself some minor injuries and tried to sell the police a story of a man breaking in and attacking them. The story fell apart pretty quickly.

runawaybottle 6y ago
https://youtu.be/ABugiItaz7Y https://youtu.be/ABugiItaz7Y Good podcast on it if anyone cares.

canada_dry 6y ago

> Police identified Haspil through “anti-felon identification cards that were spewed like confetti in Saleh’s apartment,” NBC New York reported. Can someone explain what this is? I assumed the guy would quickly be suspect #1 once they combed through Saleh's computer and found discussions about the stolen money. What's this "anti-felon identification cards" reference about?

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mconbere 6y ago
This was new to me as well. The slow motion video at the bottom of this Mental Floss article helped me visualize what they were discussing. https://www.mentalfloss.com/uk/law/31712/why-is-there-confetti-in-so-many-taser-guns https://www.mentalfloss.com/uk/law/31712/why-is-there-confet...
csomar 6y ago
I think this is the major point but it's side-tracked from the writer. Here is an interesting tidbit: > In order to track the weapon’s use, the cartridges containing the projectile darts are given serial numbers. When fired, the projectiles are accompanied by 20 to 30 vibrantly colored circular paper tags, a little smaller than one-quarter inch in diameter. The tag is known as an AFID with each AFID bearing a serial number printed on it corresponding to the serial number of the cartridge from which it was fired. Despite the bright colors of the AFIDs, their size makes them very difficult to detect. This presentation demonstrates a method for locating the released AFIDs using an alternate light source. tl;dr: Tasers' use is traceable and identifiable. The assistant probably didn't know that.
- moioci 6y ago
  Maybe that explains the portable vacuum. Seems like it wasn't fully effective.
  - apple4ever 6y ago

camjohnson26 6y ago

This is utterly tragic. Not sure that there’s a lesson to be learned other than life is short and people can be unpredictable. Must be so hard for his sister and family.

RobRivera 6y ago
My takeaway is if I discover a crime being committed by someone I don't know well, report and cut all contact. Upgrade Security. Be alert. This whole situation is a tragedy, and his willingness to impart reason with the unreasonable cost him his life.

pdevr 6y ago

The alleged killer won first place (along with another person) for website design in a Future Business Leaders of America competition held in Rochester. [1] Stunning, sad and macabre. Nothing else to say. [1] http://www.vschsd.org/News/Story.aspx?id=35361 http://www.vschsd.org/News/Story.aspx?id=35361

neonate 6y ago

https://archive.is/4gcZO https://archive.is/4gcZO

grugagag 6y ago

Tyrese Haspil is most likely a psychopath. Psychopaths are usually attracted to empathetic (nice,loving and giving) people. They see all people as a means to their goals. Psychopaths fake emotions but have none, only goals. There are a lot of hi I.Q. psychopaths in big business so all beware of who you trust. Not all of them are murderous, just a tiny minority, but all of them are manipulative and backstabbing, they can't help it.

sowellecho 6y ago

I checked the top articles to see if there is a photo of the suspect. And then I did find one eventually, after a few more searches. The coverage of this story reminds me of this tweet: https://twitter.com/ComicDaveSmith/status/1279870366773661696 https://twitter.com/ComicDaveSmith/status/127987036677366169...

anonymous38529 6y ago
The DailyMail published his photo, and also, even better, doesn't have a paywall: > https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-New-York-tech-entrepreneurs-personal-assistant-arrested.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-Ne... The NYT wouldn't have hesitated to publish Tyrese's photo had he been white and Fahim had been black. Probably their respective races would have even been mentioned in the headline.
- anonymous38529 6y ago
  What is the point of downvoting an obvious temp account, other than to censor an opinion you disagree with but evidently can't refute? Taking GoodBoyPoints away from me isn't going to change my mind (viz. that leftwing MSM outlets only reports race when it suits their narrative).
- erulabs 6y ago
  You’re being downvoted because this is unhelpful speculation which adds nothing to the discussion - be it true or untrue. If the response to what you say is “OK...”, what you have said is not terribly interesting.
  - summitsummit 6y ago
    how do you downvote on here?
    - mattm 6y ago
      You need to have a certain amount of karma before it appears

anonymous38529 6y ago

Non-paywalled article: > https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-New-York-tech-entrepreneurs-personal-assistant-arrested.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8534097/Murdered-Ne...

interesting_att 6y ago

Remember this is an ALLEGATION. I knew Fahim personally. I know people who spoke to him the day of about this very issue, so I have some information that most people don't. I absolutely do not believe this kid did it. Fahim was well liked in Nigeria but he was disrupting a dangerous market.

dahfizz 6y ago
Is there anything you can share? Tyrese had recently purchased and signed for the taser that was used in the attack. He was at home depot buying cleaning supplies right after the murder. That's some very significant evidence.
- adventured 6y ago
  All of that combined with the monetary connection, it's rather extraordinarily strong evidence.
truethoughts 6y ago
You don't have any information. Give me a break. There is overwhelming evidence implicating the suspect but because of your personal dislike or jealousy of Fahim or a ridiculous desire for attention, you're willing to push nonsense anonymously on the internet.
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NearAP 6y ago
You have no evidence for this insinuation. 1) For one thing, he was not the only running a well funded motorcycle transportation business in Nigeria. 2) He had already pivoted into last-mile delivery and again he was not the only one running a well funded one 3) Let's even assume his motorcycle transportation was disrupting a dangerous market, it is basically the same market that Uber and those before Uber disrupted in Nigeria and nothing like this happened
randompwd 6y ago

xwdv 6y ago

Pay. Your. Fucking. Debts.

alkibiades 6y ago

what are the chances he didn’t report him for stealing due to BLM? and that ended up being the cause of his death?

croissants 6y ago
What are the chances? None of us know, so speculating on it seems both ghoulish and pointless.

john-radio 6y ago

That's good. The NY Times did not help this situation, or the hundreds of other potential situations that may or may not evolve in the future, with their breathless coverage of this "likely the work of a professional" job.

HelpEveryone 6y ago

Any startups that are protecting people from being murdered? What type of device would be able to sound an alarm and save his life?