[Outside Gem Spa on 2nd Avenue]
The NYPD is "poised to launch a homicide investigation" into the deadly blast at 121 Second Ave., the Daily News reports this afternoon.
This is likely going to end up a homicide case,” a high-ranking police source told the Daily News. “The DA will probably bring it to the grand jury.”
The focus of the criminal investigation is building owner Maria Hrynenko and contractor Dilber Kukic, sources have said.
Both are suspected of tapping into a gas main meant to serve only a first-floor sushi restaurant to provide heat to Hrynenko’s tenants on upper floors. Kukic is no stranger to the law. He was arrested in October for allegedly trying to give a city inspector a $600 cash bribe to make two violations on buildings he owns on W. 173rd St. in Manhattan go away.
“No one's going to be charged for doing sloppy work, but if it can be proved that someone was told to do this, then it's a criminally negligent homicide,” the source said.
Nicholas Figueroa, 23, and Moises Ismael Locón Yac, 27, died in the blast at Sushi Park restaurant on March 26. More than 20 other people were injured as three buildings at 119-123 Second Ave. were destroyed.