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Aug 7, 2008 11:59 pm US/Eastern

Worker Arrested In Death At Times Square Club

Rapper Lil' Kim Held Party At Spotlight Live The Same Night 24-Year-Old Hispanic Woman Went Missing

Reporting
Hazel Sanchez
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Police say Syed Rahman has confessed to the beating death of 24-year-old Ingrid Rivera of Queens. Rahman was escorted out of the Midtown North Precinct station house on Thursday.

The body of Rivera, who had been missing since early Monday morning, was discovered Wednesday in a rooftop utility closet at Spotlight LIVE, a popular Times Square karaoke nightclub where Rahman works.

Rivera's mother is devastated by her loss.

"Sweet girl, very nice...very, very, very nice daughter I had...I miss her," distraught mother Ingrid Estrada said.

Investigators say Rivera was at Spotlight on Sunday night hoping to catch a glimpse of celebrities, including rap artist Lil' Kim, who was celebrating her birthday at the club that night. Bouncers kicked Rivera out of the bar for intoxication.

"After Ms. Rivera had been ejected from the club Rahman lured her back inside through an employee entrance," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. "He used the freight elevator to take her to the electrical shed on the roof where he struck her in the back of the head with a 2 ½-foot metal pipe.

Investigators say one of Rivera's girlfriends had fought off Rahman's sexual advances just 20 minutes before he beat Rivera.

Police have been guarding Rahman's Harlem apartment where he lived with his parents and siblings. Neighbors were shocked by his arrest and described him as a nice young man.

"I don't know whether he did or whether he didn't," neighbor Annie Jackson said. "I'm not going to pass judgment until I know further."

For now Rahman has been charged with second degree murder, but he's expected to face further charges.

It wasn't the first time the nightclub has seen trouble. In January, a 20-year-old Newark, N.J. man was stabbed to death after an argument inside the club spilled out onto the sidewalk and turned into a brawl. Five other men also were stabbed.

Messages left at the club and its corporate offices were not immediately returned.

Lil' Kim's spokesman, Ronn Torossian, said in an e-mailed statement that Wednesday night was "the first (she) has heard of this matter."

In July 2006, Lil' Kim got out of a federal detention center in Philadelphia after nearly 10 months behind bars for lying about a shootout outside a Manhattan hip-hop radio station. She was released early for good behavior.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.