THE man accused of murdering jogger Karina Vetrano told detectives he hated the victim’s white neighbourhood, it has been claimed.
Sources close to the disturbing case have revealed that cops believe race played a role in the shocking murder, reports the New York Post.
Suspect Chanel Lewis allegedly told police: “I don’t like those people over there.”
The black 20-year-old used to live between homes in the largely impoverished neighbourhoods of East New York and Brownsville, according to sources.
Lewis allegedly made the statement to a black detective when asked why he killed Vetrano, whose body was found strangled in Spring Creek Park in the borough of Queens.
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His comment caused cops to believe that race was a factor in Vetrano’s slaying, sources said.
A white detective initially tried twice to get Lewis to talk and he refused, sources said.
But when the black detective, Barry Brown, interviewed him, Lewis waived his Miranda rights and gave two videotaped statements, allegedly confessing that he’d “hit” and “choked” the beautiful jogger on August 2, 2016.
Brown is known as a highly-skilled officer and the “best detective in Queens for getting confessions,” sources said.
Vetrano’s neighbourhood, Howard Beach, is largely white and middle class.
In 1986, racial tensions were flamed in the city when a black construction worker was chased by a mob of white teens in Howard Beach onto a highway, where he was struck dead by a car.
On Tuesday, Vetrano’s grieving father Phil visited his daughter’s murder site on Tuesday afternoon, spending time at the makeshift memorial he’s created with rocks taken from the path of his child’s final run.
He expressed his relief that cops have caught his daughter’s alleged killer in a Monday post on a GoFundMe page set up in her honour.
“As you all know by now we have caught this piece of s–t,” he wrote.
“As we expected he is a loner loser. He will pay for his crime. I want to thank all of you who have supported us so long.”
Lewis allegedly had a history of threatening female students in high school.
He allegedly told a teacher’s aide in Brooklyn in 2011 that he wanted to “stab all the girls.”
That same year he “cursed at a female student and threatened both her and her family,” law enforcement sources said.
Lewis also allegedly told authorities that he had gone to Spring Creek Park to cool off after fighting with family members the day of the murder.
He allegedly became “startled” by Vetrano’s presence and took his anger out on her, Lewis told cops, according to sources.
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