Two Rockville Centre men arrested in connection with Yonkers murder

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Two residents of Old Mill Court — Charley Parsley, 26, and Kassaun White, 27 — were arrested in an early morning raid last week in connection with an April shooting in a Yonkers apartment that killed a 36-year-old woman and injured her husband and daughter.

Police said they seized two loaded weapons, illegal narcotics and evidence wanted in the case during the raid, which took place at 5:05 on the morning of May 20.

Det. Sgt. Patrick McCormack, a public information officer for the Yonkers Police Department, said Parsley and White were charged with second degree murder the next day and were taken to the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla, N.Y.

McCormack said that because this is an active and ongoing investigation and more arrests are possible, his department is not releasing photos of the two suspects and would only reveal limited information about their arrests.

According to Rockville Centre Police Commissioner Charles Gennario, detectives from his force, working with officers from the Yonkers and Nassau County police departments, executed three separate search warrants at 19C and 21B Old Mill Court, and at 188 N. Centre Ave. The Nassau County Bureau of Special Operations made what was described as an "early morning simultaneous dynamic entry" into the apartments, because police said they were expecting to find the murder and possibly other dangerous suspects in those locations.

The warrants were issued as a result of a joint investigation by Rockville Centre and Yonkers detectives in connection with the murder of Sandra Hackley, 36, who was fatally shot at point blank range in her first floor Yonkers Avenue apartment at 7:34 p.m. on April 21. Police said her husband, Rafael Cornielle, 31, was also shot multiple times and survived a shot to his torso from the attackers who police said were posing as deliverymen. Hackley's 12-year-old daughter was also wounded during the incident, receiving a minor graze wound to her leg. Hackley's six year-old daughter, who was also in the apartment during the shootings, was unharmed.

Police said the shootings were not random and they believe the family was targeted. They did not offer any motive for the crime.

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