According to an article in this week's JEWISH WEEK , a police officer close to the investigation said that there is "reason to believe,” based on the video footage of Aron and Leiby last Monday, that this was not, as the NYPD has publicly claimed, an abduction by a stranger, and that the two may have been acquainted prior to the tragic encounter.
It could be that Leiby was targeted by Aron and made up to meet him. That explains why Leiby asked his parents to walk home alone and it explains why Leiby made that fateful turn on 44th Street and didn't proceed up 13th avenue.How could Leiby miss 13th Avenue a busy block and instead walk off to 44th street a rather quiet block? It also explains why Leiby would wait 7 minutes in front of the dentist's office without approaching other people that were constantly walking by. If in fact Aron took Leiby to Monsey to the wedding and left him in the car with open windows as he claimed in his confession, why wouldn't Leiby scream to the guests of the wedding when Aron left him to enter the building? Unless he knew him prior?
Is there a coverup by the Shomrim and the Police?
Hella Winston of the Jewish Week thinks that there certainly is.
Police say that the first 3 hours of a missing child is extremely critical in finding the child, and that Police always respond immediately. But in this case Police wern't notified until 3 hours after Shomrim were notified! Calls by The Jewish Week to Yakov Daskal, founder and coordinator of the Brooklyn South Shomrim, were not returned. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal he seemed to brush off the apparent discrepancy, saying that "it wouldn't have mattered [had the Shomrim reported to the police sooner] … And the police wouldn't have come right away."
While Commissioner Kelly also stated publicly that the time lag would not have made a difference in this case, he did acknowledge to The Wall Street Journal that the Shomrim often do not immediately notify police when they get reports and that this has been a “longstanding” issue for the department.
Both Daskal and Kelly’s remarks have angered some in the NYPD, who insist that police do in fact respond immediately to calls about missing children, and believe that the failure of Shomrim to report suspected crimes to law enforcement immediately (and, in some cases, at all) is a serious problem.
They believe that Kelly is downplaying his criticism of the Shomrim for political reasons, since the NYPD top brass and city officials value their relationship with the Shomrim groups.
“The first three hours of an investigation are key,” said a source within the NYPD. “And while Kelly said he would prefer [that the police] hear about [these situations] right away, it is outrageous to say it probably didn’t make a difference in this case,” especially in light of the fact that the authorities have been vague about the timeline of the murder.
Did Shomrim know about Aron and didn't report him?
Among the questions that emerged this week was whether Levi Aron, the confessed killer, had previously been reported to either the Shomrim or the police.
At a press conference held by Commissioner Kelly, a reporter from the Orthodox publication, Hamodia, indicated that he had information that several 911 calls were made about Aron before this case, but Kelly said he had no knowledge of those calls.
Further, The Daily, a publication for Apple iPad tablet users published by News Corporation, has reported that the Shomrim were warned about Aron within the past several weeks, when he allegedly stalked an 11 year-old boy. However, Daskal of the Brooklyn South Shomrim denied these claims, both in The Daily and again on a radio show Saturday night.
A law enforcement source with knowledge of the case told The Jewish Week that there is “reason to believe,” based on the video footage of Aron and Leiby last Monday, that this was not, as the NYPD has publicly claimed, an abduction by a stranger, and that the two may have been acquainted prior to the tragic encounter.
Some sources within both the community and the NYPD believe the police and Shomrim are not disclosing the possibility that Aron’s violent tendencies and interest in boys were known to people in the community who should have, but failed, to report him.
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