Dec 20, 2007 7:18 pm US/Eastern
Suspect In Queens Dentist's Murder Indicted
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Mikhail Mallayev, 50, is suspected of gunning down Dr. Daniel Malakov on a Queens playground.
CBS
The Georgia man accused of gunning down a Queens dentist at a playground was indicted by a Queens grand jury for the horrific murder, CBS 2's Scott Weinberger has learned.
Mikhail Mallayev, 50, an Uzbekistan immigrant who resides in Chamblee, Ga., was arrested last month and now faces second-degree murder charges for the Oct. 28 murder of 34-year-old Daniel Malakov.
Police revealed after his arrest that Mallayev was linked to Malakov through marriage, apparently as a relative of his estranged wife, Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova.
Malakov was killed while dropping off his 5-year-old daughter to Borukhova at the Forest Hills playground. Police say as the child went to greet her mother, a gunman wearing a black leather jacket and a dark hat approached the dentist, shot three rounds into his chest, and fled.
Police recovered a bleach bottle covered with tape that they believe was used as a makeshift silencer, and fingerprints lifted from the bottle led to Mallayev's arrest.
His fingerprints were on file stemming from a 1994 farebeating.
There was immediate speculation following the murder that his wife may have been involved, though she adamantly denied involvement to CBS 2. Malakov's mother, however, recognized a picture of Mallayev immediately on Tuesday and even said the suspect was in the couple's wedding.
But CBS 2 learned after Mallayev's arrest, detectives served warrants at Borukhova's apartment, her office, and two of her sisters' apartments, removing computers and videos from each location.
The death shocked his close-knit community of Bukharan Jews from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan.
"We lost a young, energetic, spiritual and promising member of the community," said Rabbi Itzhak Yehoshua, head of the Bukharian Rabbinical Council of America. "We will miss him for many years."
Malakov emigrated to the United States from Tashkent, one of tens of thousands of Bukharan Jews who arrived in the 1990s after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He studied at New York University and Columbia University.
"He was able to accomplish the American dream," said Yehoshua. "There's a lot of grief in the community."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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