NYPD is investigating the death of a veterinarian and a dog, found lifeless Sunday morning in a van used as a mobile veterinary clinic parked in Queens. The main hypothesis is that they were killed by the inhalation of carbon monoxide produced by a generator, probably due to the air vents obstructed by the snow accumulated during the night.
The police intervened at 9:25, following a 911 call, on 65th Avenue, in Flushing. Inside an old Ford van the agents found the body of a man of 57 years and that of a small dog, both declared dead on the spot. Not far away, outside the vehicle, a 73-year-old man was found unconscious with a head injury, compatible with an ice fall; was transported in stable conditions at the NewYork-Presbyterian Queens.
The victim was identified by family members such as Ashraf Hussein, a veterinarian of Egyptian origin who worked in the van providing low-cost care for families with economic difficulties. According to the eldest son, Mahmoud Hussein, the man had left home on Saturday to work and had not returned. Investigators explained to the family that the snow accumulated next to the middle could have blocked the air vents of the generator connected to the van, causing the diffusion of carbon monoxide inside the cabin.
The 73-year-old man, Garo Alexanian, living in the same street, would have managed to regain knowledge and get out of the van crawling, before falling and losing the senses again. A neighbor, Shari Jenkins, told that the son saw him bark out of the middle. When he tried to help him, the man would have told her that “the surgeon” had died inside the van. Upon arrival of rescues, about fifteen minutes later, inside the vehicle were seen the body of the veterinarian and that of the dog, lying on an operating table.
The van is used by Low Cost Vet Mobile, an itinerant veterinary service that offers performance ranging from basic vaccinations to emergency surgery, with visits starting at $25. According to the documents, Alexanian controls both the owner of the media and the company that manages its operations. In the past he was a well-known animal activist and also collaborated with the 311 service of the city. It is not yet clear whether the vehicle had been subjected to recent inspections or whether the activity was in order from the point of view of the authorizations.
Some residents reported hearing abnormal noises from the generator already on Saturday night, when a technician was also alerted to work with us. The mobile clinic, they explained, often attracted customers even at night. The vet’s wife, Marwa Mansour, told that Hussein worked in the van two days a week and sometimes stayed in bed when he performed surgery. The man, immigrated to the United States from Egypt, had driven taxis for years before obtaining the license as a veterinarian in the State of New York and also worked in a clinic in Staten Island.
The family told us that they wanted to repatriate the psalm in Egypt, in the city of Asyut, where Hussein was born. She had three children, 17, 20 and 25.
L’articolo A man and a dog were found dead in a van in Queens proviene da IlNewyorkese.
