FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 8, 2018
Sheepshead Bay Man Indicted for Fatally Stabbing Brooklyn Professor
Inside Victim’s Basement in Prospect Park South
Allegedly Gained Entry and Attacked Homeowner; Found Hiding in Closet
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 29-year-old Brooklyn man has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder for allegedly killing a New School professor inside the victim’s basement in Prospect Park South.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant allegedly burglarized a house and, when confronted by the homeowner, brutally stabbed him to death. We intend to vigorously prosecute this shocking and reprehensible murder and obtain justice for the victim’s heartbroken family.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Mirzo Atadzhanov, 29, of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on charges of first- and second-degree murder and first- and second-degree burglary. He was ordered held without bail and to return to court on August 29, 2018. The defendant faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of the top count with which he is charged.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on May 7, 2018, just before 6 p.m., the victim’s wife placed a 911 call and, when police responded, officers discovered the victim, 66-year-old Jeremy Safran, in the basement of his Prospect Park South home. The victim was stabbed twice in the chest and three times in the stomach. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The defendant was discovered hiding in a closet in the basement. The knife used in the stabbing was subsequently recovered from the trunk of the defendant’s car, according to the evidence. The investigation revealed that, earlier that day, the defendant followed the victim’s 19-year-old daughter to the family’s front door, engaged her in conversation and then left.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Ernest Chin, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Maria Neri, of the District Attorney’s Green Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Timothy Gough, Homicide Bureau Chief.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt