Police Has Suspect in NY Diamond District Murder

New York police are holding a suspect in last year’s murder of Eduard Nektalov who was shot in the back of the head and killed in Midtown Manhattan. The police have been holding the suspect in custody since November on a different shooting that took place in the Bronx.

Nektalov, 46, was shot on Sixth Avenue near 47th street in the early evening hours last May, two months before he was to go on trial for alleged involvement in a money laundering scam for Colombian drug dealers.

According to the police, investigators have matched ballistics evidence from the Bronx case to that of the Diamond District slaying in which the un-named 37-year-old man is a suspect.

At the time, NY police said they did not know if the murder was related to the federal money laundering case but suspected that the murder was ordered, perhaps by the Russian mafia.

The suspect has a long police record that includes 11 arrests on assault and two homicide charges. The turn in the Nektalov case came when ballistic tests from a Bronx murder attempt matched the bullets shot in the May murder.

Witnesses said the shooter had olive color skin and shot Nektalov three times without saying a word in front of a Gap store. He then tucked the gun in his jacket and walked away. The police planned a lineup.