A coldblooded burglar yesterday executed three people – including an elderly couple who were close friends of 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 shot dead octogenarians Sara and Larry Sprung and a neighbor, Ray Damelio, 49, in a perverse murder rampage, 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 of 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, and worshipped in synagogue with them for many years,” said Silver, who last saw the couple about three weeks ago.
“They were really good friends of my parents. They were a beautiful couple.”
Silver said Larry Sprung, a retired postal worker, was devoted to the temple, doing everything from maintenance work to helping out with the finances.
Heshey Jacob, a close friend of the Sprungs, said Larry attended temple every morning and was to lead a special prayer yesterday in memory of one of Sara’s parents, who had died on that day several decades ago.
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.
“Ray was such a great guy. He loved to travel and to cook.”
Cops found the three victims when they responded to an alert neighbor’s 911 call reporting a prowler on a fire escape.
Santos told cops he first killed Damelio, who lived in a third-floor apartment, the sources said.
After fatally shooting Damelio once 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 Sprungs’ second-floor apartment.
He killed the couple with two bullets, one fired into each victim’s head, said cops.
Then Santos undressed Sara Sprung and sexually abused her bloodied body, the sources said.
After police arrived, a witness pointed out the fire escape the prowler had been on, as Santos hid nearby.
Emergency Service Unit officers climbed up the fire escape, from which they entered Damelio’s apartment.
Then Santos tried to flee – but cops saw him running from the scene toward Broome Street. Officers chased the suspect and quickly grabbed him.
He was carrying a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun with three bullets, cops said. Santos also allegedly had cash and credit cards from both apartments.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said there is no indication that Santos knew the victims or had deliberately chosen their apartments.
“It was a heinous crime,” Kelly said.
Santos had three prior arrests and was wanted for skipping a court hearing after a 1998 arrest on charges of harassing his grandmother.