Who are Zayvion Perry and Adriel Riley Jr? NY teens, 16 and 14, burn lonely mentally ill man, 53, to death
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: Two teenagers in New York have been charged with murder, assault and arson in connection to the death of a mentally ill man, whom they set on fire in his home. It was reported that the two, aged 14 and 16, had sneaked into the home of the man, identified as Steven Amenhauser, on Lyell Avenue near Murray Street on Friday afternoon. They then sprayed him with ignitable fluid and set him on fire.
The victim, 53, covered in second-degree and third-degree burns, was left to die. He was found by either a mail carrier or a gas and electric worker who tried to put out the fire, reports said. Amenhauser, a White male, fought his burn wounds, that covered 70 percent of his body, for four days in a burn trauma unit at the University of Rochester Medical Center before he succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday.
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Some reports claimed that Amenhauser ran out of his apartment while on fire and others claimed that he was left to die in his apartment before the mail carrier or the gas and electric worker tried to help him.
According to a report in WHAM 13 News, the two teenagers were identified as Zayvion Perry, 16, and 14-year-old Adriel Riley, Jr. Perry was initially charged with first-degree assault and attempted arson, and Riley with second-degree arson and assault. The murder charges were filed after Amenhauser's death on Tuesday. The two of them are now facing charges of second-degree murder in Amenhauser's death. The race of the two teenagers was not revealed initially, but it was outed by Rochester journalist and radio host Bob Lonsberry, who quoted law enforcement sources to report that the teens even instructed the victim during the incident to inform authorities that the perpetrators were two White men. This report was later confirmed by a police source to The Daily Wire.
Lonsberry also said, “In a world where everything anymore seems to be about race, nobody wanted to mention the fact that the teens where Black and the old man was White, and they watched him burn a bit, after they sprayed him and lit him, and they told him to say it was two White guys who did it," and he added, “Nobody will ask if it was a hate crime."
Capt. Frank Umbino of the Rochester Police Department said in a press conference, "The reason I’m telling you a little bit about him, because there’s nobody else to speak for him." He also added, "The kids, they hung around in the neighborhood, and if anybody knows that neighborhood, everybody kind of knows everybody. So, they certainly knew Steven, but there was no type of familial relationship."
13WHAM News reported that Riley had been released on a violent felony charge at the time of the recent incident. His arrest history has been sealed by Family Court because of his age.