Jahmel Sanders: Bronx gang war suspect arrested for gruesome murders of Nikki Huang and Jesse Parrilla
BRONX, NEW YORK: A 30-year-old suspect has been detained in connection to the murders of two 22-year-olds who were found in a burning car in New York City. Jahmel Sanders was reportedly arrested in connection to the murders of couple Nikki Huang and Jesse Parrilla in May last year.
Sanders was already named a suspect in the incident along with Steven Santiago, 34, by NYPD. The latter is still at large and the authorities are looking for him. On May 21, 2022, the couple was discovered in Parrilla's burning Honda near the Split Rock Golf Course in the Bronx. Their bodies were severely burned and remained unidentified for days.
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“I kept asking Detective Soto if this would end up a cold case and he always assured me it would not,” Huang's mother, Amy Chan told PIX11 after learning of the arrest. “I’m thankful that the detectives stayed persistent and thankful that you got as much exposure for my daughter’s and Jesse’s case from the beginning.”
What was the motive behind the killings?
"Someone took a photo of him in the car. I saw my son's bones," Parrilla's mother, Michelle Morales, previously told the New York Post. According to a medical examiner, both Huang and Parrilla were fatally shot and were believed to be the victims of a gang conflict. The couple was reportedly killed after Huang told a group of friends, allegedly associated with the Up the Hill gang, that her purse and phone were stolen in a mugging by the members of a rival crew, Down the Hill.
A number of shootings took place
Both gangs were reportedly involved in a string of shootings which included one in the Lower East Side that left Brandon Atkinson, the half-brother of Santiago, dead. Three more people were shot within hours in two separate shootings following the death of Atkinson on the Lower East Side and Queens.
Zymir Humphrey, 18, was arrested in Martinsburg, West Virginia, last July in connection with Atkinson's death. Parilla was reportedly not involved in the feud between the Up the Hill and the Down the Hill gangs. He was a basketball player from the Bronx and played point guard at Genesee Community College located upstate. His partner, Huang, owned a nail salon in Chinatown called Nails by Nikki.