By Karenlyn Barone, Angela Marshall and Jennifer Marino
Anthony Battaglia of Sunset Avenue was killed late that night, perhaps the final victim in a string of robberies that began earlier in the week and hit Oceanside, Long Beach and Rockville Centre, according to police.
At 11:50 p.m., Fourth Precinct Nassau County Police received an anonymous 911 call about a possible gunshot. A patrol car was dispatched to investigate, but the officers did not find anything amiss. Winds were howling and leaves were blowing across the otherwise quiet street. There was no evidence to validate the report and, at the time, the officers deemed it unfounded. What they had no way of knowing was that Battaglia was lying gravely wounded at his back door, which wasn't visible from the street.
Moments later, his wife, Caryn, noting that her husband was overdue from his business meeting with a client in Manhattan, thought she heard a knock at the back door. She opened it to find her husband lying on the threshold, unresponsive. She called 911 and within four minutes an ambulance arrived. Sadly, the ambulance took Battaglia, who was to turn 38 on Monday, not to a hospital, but to the medical examiner's morgue. The father of two children, Richie 12, and Stephanie, 3, had been shot once above his left hip and stabbed twice in the lower abdomen. His face, head and torso were also badly beaten.
The police determined that Battaglia, a mechanical engineer, walked the mile home from the Long Island Rail Road Station on Sunrise Highway in Lynbrook, as was his normal routine. Police said that he was attacked while in front of either his own home or his neighbor's home.
"We believe the assault took place on the street and somehow, he managed, before he died, to get to the rear of the house, which was his habit," said Detective Lt. Dennis Farrell, commanding officer of the Nassau County Police Homicide Squad.
Battaglia may have been the target of an attempted robbery gone very wrong, say police. "To the best of our knowledge, Mr. Battaglia was not robbed," said Farrell. "But it does appear that this was the motivation for the crime. It was an attempted robbery."
In fact, neighbors interviewed the next day did report hearing loud voices at the time of the incident and seeing four or five Hispanic men in a tan SUV near the Battaglia home.
At a press conference on Friday, Sept. 19, Farrell said that there appeared to be a link between the Battaglia slaying and an incident earlier that night. At about 9 p.m., a Rockville Centre couple, identified only as a husband wife in their 30s, were approached by a group of Hispanics in their late teen to early 20s near the corner of South Lewis Place and Rutland Avenue. At least one of the men had a gun and another a knife. One of the men reportedly wore a black cloth over his face as a disguise. It was initially reported to be a black bandanna, which raised the possibility that the assault was a possible gang initiation. Those reports have since been dispelled by the police investigative team.
The husband was struck on the back of the head with an unknown object, and his wallet was taken. The assailants fled eastbound on Rutland Road in a tan SUV. The husband was treated for a head laceration at Mercy Medical Center. His wife was neither hurt nor robbed. Both the Battaglia murder and the robbery both took place on quiet neighborhood streets south of Sunrise Highway.
"At this time, it certainly appears there may be a link," said Farrell at the press conference. "But it will be some time before we know that categorically."
At a second press conference, on Monday, Sept. 22, Farrell was joined by Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and Police Commissioner James Lawrence, who asked for help in solving what Suozzi called "the worst type of crime" and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible.
Farrell spoke specifically about the Battaglia investigation and its possible link to the robbery in Rockville Centre, but he also noted two other recent incidents that are being considered in the overall investigation.
The first took place in Oceanside on Monday, Sept. 15, when Frank Kulish, 21, was attacked while walking on Bayside Avenue at the intersection of Lawson Boulevard. He was approached by three men and asked for a cigarette. One of the men grabbed Kulish and threw him to the ground. Another man, wearing a black cloth to hide his identity, struck Kulish on the right side of the head with a silver handgun. The robbers stole an undisclosed amount of cash, Kulish's cell phone and his wallet before fleeing the scene. Kulish was taken to Long Beach Hospital, treated for a head laceration and released.
The other incident took place on the 300 block of West Penn Street in Long Beach on Wednesday, Sept. 17. Long Beach police officials said a robbery occurred on the quiet residential street sometime after dark, near the victim's home. According to Long Beach Police Department executive officer Lt. Greg Salter, the similarities between the earlier attacks and the general description of the Long Beach robbers tweaked the interest of Nassau investigators. The Long Beach victim also had a cell phone stolen and was possibly roughed up a little. There were no major injuries.
All the crimes occurred between 8:30 p.m. and midnight.
"In some of the cases, there were four individuals, and in some there were three," said Farrell. "In one case, the physical descriptions differ slightly, however, there are other components of the crime that are very, very similar. For that reason, all four crimes are being included in this in-depth investigation.
"Other people may have been accosted by these individuals and not reported it," Farrell said.
Police are asking anyone who was out on Thursday night and may have seen the SUV to call Crimestoppers at (800) 244-TIPS. All calls will remain anonymous.
"The county is going to do whatever it takes to catch these individuals," said Suozzi. "There will be no sparing of resources, or time or effort ... to bring these cowards, who apparently murdered an innocent man, to justice."
