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Gelber Lopez-Perez is led to his arraignment by Southampton town Police on Wednesday morning. DANA SHAW
The Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad has identified the victim in last week’s fatal stabbing in Riverside — though they’re withholding his name pending notification of his family.
Meanwhile several details surrounding the midday assault near the traffic circle that claimed the life of the man have been released.
Arraigned before Judge Gary Weber in Southampton Justice Court last Wednesday, June 7, Gelber Lopez-Perez, 20, was remanded to the Suffolk County Jail without bail, according to District Attorney Raymond Tierney’s office.
Police were called to a site just off the Riverside traffic circle at 3:26 on the afternoon of June 6. A fight between two men escalated and police say Lopez-Perez stabbed his fellow combatant and fled the scene.
Police, the county sheriff’s office and its K9 unit all embarked on a search and located the suspect by the courthouse on Griffing Avenue in Riverhead. They say he had the murder weapon, a knife used to stab the victim multiple times, in his waistband.
After apprehension, Lopez-Perez, whom police said is homeless, was interviewed for several hours before an arrest, on a count of second-degree murder, was announced.
It was not his only arrest that day.
According to the Southampton Town Police report, just before 3 in the morning on June 7, they say that while he was in the police interview room, he kicked the wall, damaging it. The charge for that is criminal mischief in the third degree, a Class E felony.
