Brooklyn detectives apprehended the two suspects accused of beating a homeless man to death and injuring another as they slept in a supermarket parking lot last month.
Francisco Corocoj, 25, and Manuel Perez, 49, were taken into custody on Friday for the heinous attack in which both victims were bludgeoned with a baseball bat and metal pipes, authorities said.
The suspects, police said, reside at the Harlem YMCA shelter on West 135th Street. They were charged with first-degree manslaughter, as well as second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
Law enforcement sources said the assault occurred at around 7 p.m. on Sept. 18, as the two victims, ages 38 and 42, slept in the ShopRite supermarket parking lot at 1080 McDonald Ave. in Borough Park.
Police said the suspects, identified as Corocoj and Perez, allegedly approached the victims and began striking them repeatedly with the baseball bat and pipes.
Both perpetrators fled by the time officers from the 66th Precinct and EMS arrived at the scene. There, the cops found the 42-year-old man with cuts and bruising to his head and body, and the 38-year-old man — later identified as Cos Jervis Jonas Ajpuac —with swelling to his legs and stomach; he was later determined to have sustained internal bleeding.
EMS rushed both men to Maimonides Medical Center. While the 42-year-old man was treated and released, Ajpuac’s condition took a turn for the worse, and he died of his injuries on Oct. 2. Following an autopsy, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s office classified his death as a homicide.
Police on Oct. 9 released photos and video of Corocoj and Perez; cops said the perps were known to frequent the area around McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway.
Homicides have doubled in the 66th Precinct year to date from 2023, according to the latest police data. Last year saw two reported murders compared to four during the same time period this year.
Total violent crime in the area, including murder, rape and robbery, is also up 2.31%, per the data.
