A coldblooded burglar yesterday executed three people – including an elderly couple who were close friends with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – after breaking into their Lower East Side building through a fire escape, police said.
Steve Santos, 20, told cops he was high on marijuana when he mercilessly gunned down octogenarians Sara and Larry Sprung as well as Ray Damelio, 49, during a perverse murder rampage in which he partied in one of the victims’ apartments, sources said.
Santos was nabbed shortly after the grisly triple slaying at 504 Grand St., near the well-known Henry Street Settlement, at about 6:20 a.m.
Beloved fixtures in the close-knit community since the 1930s, the Sprungs were remembered last night for their kindness and zest for life.
“They were so kind,” said the couple’s nephew, Yaakov Sprung, 42, of West Orange, N.J.
“They were wonderful, gentle, soft-spoken people. It’s too shocking.”
Silver, a lifelong resident of the Lower East Side who prayed alongside the Sprungs at nearby Bialystoker Synagogue, said they will be “greatly missed.”
“I knew these wonderful individuals and their families well,” said Silver, who last saw the couple about three weeks ago.
“They were really good friends of my parents. They were a beautiful couple.”
Damelio’s grieving sister said her brother, an advertising executive, “had such a big smile and was so caring.”
“I’m just devastated,” said Joan Damelio of Bethlehem, Pa.
Cops responding to an alert neighbor’s 911 call, reporting a prowler on the building’s third-floor fire escape, discovered the three victims.
Santos, who had three prior arrests, told cops his first victim was Damelio, who lived in a third-floor apartment, the sources said.
After fatally shooting Damelio in the neck, Santos stayed awhile in the apartment, drinking his victim’s booze, the sources said.
Then Santos walked down the fire escape and broke into the Sprung’s second-floor apartment. He killed the couple, then undressed Sara and sexually abused her bloodied body, the sources said.
Santos, who lives with his grandmother, was busted by cops as he fled the building toward Broome Street. Police recovered a handgun, cash and stolen credit cards.