NYPD: Union Square Fatal Stabbing Suspect Left 'Sorry' Note Before Fleeing To Mexico
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The man accused of fatally stabbing to death youth soccer coach Michael Jones last weekend in Union Square left a handwritten note at his Ridgewood, Queens apartment before fleeing to his native Mexico, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said Thursday.
Sources told CBS 2's Derricke Dennis the note from Orlando Orea to his brother, read "I love you. I hope you can forgive me. I'm sorry."
"It's a note that just basically makes a statement of that he was sorry," Kelly told reporters earlier.
But Kelly stopped short of calling the note a confession.
WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reports
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The NYPD is working to locate Orea, Kelly said.
"We are in contact with the State Department, with the legal attaché in Mexico, with Interpol. We will most likely be sending personnel there shortly. So we're doing everything we can to put the process in motion to get this individual back here," Kelly told Lamb.
"He lived with his brother. We know the village that he's from in Mexico, so hopefully we'll be able to have the Mexican authorities locate him and take him into custody," Kelly said.
Investigators said Orea had gotten into a bar fight earlier in the night but Jones was not part of the argument. The brutal slashing was likely a case of mistaken identity, police said.
"We're speaking to the brother, we've spoken to him. There is a note that he left and we're looking at that note," Kelly said.
The NYPD is working with Queens District Attorney Richard Brown to indict Orea. Having an indictment in hand is a necessary step in the process of extraditing the suspect to the U.S., when and if he's located in Mexico, CBS 2's Tony Aiello reported.
One neighbor in Ridgewood told Aiello that Orea made her nervous.
"He seemed kind of angry, on the angry side, so she didn't conversate with him," the neighbor said through a translator.
Jones, who had been living in West Harrison in Westchester County, was found in a pool of blood around 4:30 Sunday morning. One of his ears was cut off.
Jones, 25, was pronounced dead on arrival at Bellevue Hospital.
Authorities said Orea, also known by the aliases Orlando Gutierrez or Orlando Estevas, bought a one-way ticket to Mexico City on an Aero Mexico flight just moments before it was scheduled to leave John F. Kennedy Airport on Tuesday morning.
While officials tried to place Orea, 32, on a no-fly list, he was already gone by the time they had done so.
Jones, a native of Liverpool, England, was a coach with the New York Red Bulls Youth Training Program. The team held a memorial for Jones on Wednesday.
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