Jul 24, 2008 7:06 pm US/Eastern
L.I. Family Happy Someone Finally 'Snitched'
Thanks To Someone Finally Coming Forward, An Arrest Is Made In Christmas Murder Of Kareem Sapp
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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Kareem Sapp was shot dead on Dec. 18, 2007.
CBS
Months after a teenager was murdered on Long Island the police have finally made an arrest. The motive they say: Jealousy. The victim's parents tell CBS 2 HD witnesses were afraid to "rat out" the suspect and, until now, refused to help.
Their license plates bears the initials and birth date of their only child, 19-year-old Kareem Sapp, murdered just before Christmas. The case was finally resolved Thursday with the arrest of a teacher's aide.
"I had to bury my son the day after Christmas," said Tina Richardson, the victim's mother. "I had to funeralize my son after that, and it was a horrible ordeal."
Added father Thomas Sapp: "It's definitely been a struggle."
Kareem Sapp's parents describe their intelligent, vivacious son, extremely handsome -- a student at Uniondale High, an aspiring mechanic.
"In very simple terms what happened here was a formula for murder," Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Michael Fleming said. "Two men, one woman and a handgun."
That handgun, Fleming says, was fired by the killer, Grady Hampton, a teacher's aide, after he was overwhelmed with jealousy when the handsome victim offered the suspect's girlfriend a ride home.
The murder took place right in front of suspect Hampton's home. The girlfriend who witnessed the crime clammed up, fearful of retribution and being labeled a snitch. The whole neighborhood remained silent.
"Yesterday it was my cousin. Tomorrow it could be your mother," Shatoya Richardson said. "They can run in your house and kill her and you'd never know what happened to her because no one wants to say anything. We're destroying our families. We're destroying our society."
Police departments across Long Island are now struggling with witnesses who refuse to come forward to help solve murder cases.
"We've had people with information withhold that from the police on purpose," Fleming said. "They filed it away and held on to it until they needed it for themselves, almost using it like cash in the bank."
Finally, to the relief of Kareem Sapp's family, they said witnesses did the right thing.
The girlfriend's name was not made public out of fear for her safety. Hampton is being held without bail on murder charges.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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