Two suspects arrested in murder of Oleg Bosenko (12/08/02)

Two suspects arrested in murder of Oleg Bosenko

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - New York City Police said they arrested two suspects linked to the murder of Oleg Bosenko, the Ukrainian immigrant who was shot walking home from the subway with his wife on October 30.

Police arrested Joseph Johnson, 25, of Coney Island on November 14 and charged him with murder, robbery, weapons possession and possession of crack cocaine and marijuana, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, according to The New York Times.

A spokesman for the New York City police department told The Weekly that police charged Naquasia Pollard, 19, with murder, robbery and weapons possession after arresting her on November 22.

Mr. Bosenko, 38, was walking his wife, Larysa, 37, home from the subway station in Sheepshead Bay at about 1:30 a.m., when the couple were accosted by a man and a woman wearing ski masks. Mr. Bosenko was fatally shot in the chest and groin as he tried to protect his wife. Struck by three bullets from a semiautomatic pistol, Bosenko died an hour later at Coney Island Hospital.

Detectives arrested Mr. Johnson after another parolee told a law enforcement official that Mr. Johnson had admitted his role in the crime, the police said. The two-time felon later confessed to being one of the two armed robbers who attacked the couple, a law enforcement official told the Times. Mr. Johnson was arrested at the home of a girlfriend in Brooklyn with five bags of crack cocaine, but no weapon.

Mr. Johnson was reported to have a history of violent crime. In 1994 he was convicted of attempted robbery after he punched a woman in the face on the Upper West Side and took her wallet, shoes, gloves and a lipstick case. He was sentenced to 18 months to 4-1/2 years, and served the minimum before being released on parole.

Three months after his release, in September 1995, he robbed a man and a woman in a Coney Island apartment building. Armed with a shotgun, he took $17 and a jacket from the man, and $5 from the woman. He was convicted of robbery and sentenced to four to eight years. The parole board denied him release in 1999, but released him in August 2001.

Little is known of Ms. Pollard.

A crew of city workers was reported to be dredging the sewers near the site where Mr. Bosenko was killed, combing through the muck looking for clues. Commissioner Kelly said the police were investigating whether the robbery and killing were part of a pattern of crimes elsewhere in southern Brooklyn.

The Bosenkos had been married for 13 years and came to the United States about a year and a half ago from the Sumy region of Ukraine; they have a 12-year-old daughter, Inna. Mr. Bosenko was studying to become a city employee and the couple had hoped to buy a house.

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