Leonardo Espinal, Bronx man drowns son, poisons daughter with pizza
Tragedy struck a Bronx family on November 7 when a father was so upset after his wife left him, he locked himself in the bathroom with his son, and tried to commit an alleged murder-suicide with poisoned pizza.
photo/Alan Cleaver
Leonardo Espinal, age 47, is in police custody (at the hospital) after murdering his son and trying to kill his daughter because he’s distraught over the separation with his wife, Rosaura Abreu.
The Stir details that the man had apparently just been kicked out of the family home and was estranged from his wife. While co-parenting the children, he requested a sleepover, but then shocked his wife saying he was going to kill himself.
The mother called her husband’s stepmother. The stepmother did a welfare check to discover the 7-year-old Mia vomiting after eating rat poison-laced pizza, and her son locked in the bathroom with 5-year-old Stewart, who had been drown by Leonardo.
Police say they found Espinal, fully dressed, on top of his naked son’s body submerged in a bathtub full of water, the New York Post said.
The impact of the incident pushed Abreu into an apparent state of shock, said her boss at the restaurant where she works.
”She looked confused.” Dario Caba, owner of La Estrella restaurant, told the New York Post. “She told me that her husband had taken her son away. She was talking, but she wasn’t in the right state of mind. She wasn’t even crying. She was pale like she was in shock.”
Espinal told police that he’d also swallowed rat poison. He remained hospitalized yesterday, along with his daughter, who was in critical condition, according to reports.
