Police Release Sketch Of Person Of Interest In Deadly Package Explosion In Queens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The hunt continues for the person who allegedly left a mysterious package which exploded and killed a 73-year-old man on the porch of a home in Queens last week.
Late Wednesday, the NYPD released a sketch depicting a person of interest wanted in connection to the homicide.
George Wray, the home's landlord, died Tuesday while hospitalized at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside, four days after a the package that had been left on his porch exploded and left him with second-degree burns on 80 percent of his body.
Cell phone video captured Wray doubled over in pain after he opened the mysterious package left on his porch on 222nd Street in Springfield Gardens.
Police say while the package had no postal information, it was addressed to a first name. They said the package sat in front of the home for days until Wray came by and opened it.
A man named Thomas was one of several neighbors who threw wet towels to Wray.
"I saw a man lying in the grass and he was actually on his knees and he was on fire," Thomas said. "He was screaming out in pain. Lot of pain, because the flames engulfed his whole top half."
"He was burned all over his body from head to toe," neighbor Audrice Campbell said.
The bomb squad spent the next several hours collecting evidence and testing residue on the brick wall and front door of the home. They found a cylinder-shaped package roughly the size of an oatmeal box filled with black powder -- possibly gunpowder used in antique firearms.
Detectives called it a low grade explosive.
The person of interest is described as a black male between 30 and 35-years-old, 5'11" tall and 160 pounds with dark colored eyes and a mustache.
Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74682). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
