A decomposing body found wrapped in a sleeping bag in the trash outside a Manhattan apartment building was dumped there by a person in a wheelchair after the victim was shot in the head, cops said — leading an angry mob to target a man as cops took him into custody on Monday.
The corpse found just before 5 p.m. Friday on E. 27th St. near Third Ave. in Kips Bay was so badly decomposed, cops were not initially sure of the gender or how the person died.
The death has now been deemed a homicide and the victim identified as 31-year-old Yazmeen Williams. And police have recovered video showing a man in a motorized wheelchair dumping the body. No arrests have been made.
“He just threw my baby out like garbage,” said the victim’s mother, Nicole Williams. “This is evil. It’s so evil.”
Yazmeen had everything in the world to live for, having just started a job helping homeless people find housing, her family says.
“My birthday is at the end of the month. She was saying, ‘Mom, we’re going out! We’re gonna celebrate,'” Nicole Williams said. “She’s a wonderful daughter.”
The body was discovered after neighbors complained of the smell.
When police officers arrived, they found a large garbage bag under a sidewalk shed on a four-wheel dolly, cops said. The bag was with the building’s garbage waiting to be picked up by the Department of Sanitation.
Officers cut open the plastic bag and found a blue sleeping bag. Yazmeen’s remains were inside.
The cause of death, a gunshot wound to the head, was established on Sunday, police said.
The suspect was seen on surveillance video dragging the corpse as he made his way down the street in a motorized wheelchair.
In video obtained by the Daily News, police were seen taking a man into custody Monday, carrying him out of the building on a stretcher.
Just outside, a mob of angry people waited for him to be brought out. Police and medics opened the door and worked to get the man through the crowd, who jeered and became more and more antagonistic, the video shows.
“F–k you! F–k you!” one woman screams just before the crowd rushed the man.
The first responders rushed him to a waiting ambulance with the crowd following closely, trying to get their hands on the man.
“We know what he did!” a man shouted at a police officer who tried to reason with him. “Don’t f–king touch me!
Williams’ aunt told The News later Monday that the crowd beat the man, who police say has not yet been charged.
“What just happened shows how loved she was,” said Zque Ramirez. “She grew up here. My mom has lived here for 30 years.”
“This is not the end,” she added. “Justice will be served.”
The victim lived nearby with her grandmother. She majored in criminal justice at Buffalo State college, her mother said, and wanted to go back to school for her master’s degree.
Nisha Ramirez, the victim’s aunt, noted that Yazmeen, despite studying law, was the type of person who would want to help people not put them behind bars.
Before the murder, the aunt said, Yazmeen was “in good spirits” seemingly without any worries.
“Who would do this to her?” she asked.
The victim’s mother, meanwhile, said that when police broke the news to her she collapsed and nearly fainted, hoping it was a dream.
“When the detectives came to the door I knew,” she said. “I just saw them and I said, ‘No, no, no.’ I said, ‘This is not happening.'”
“I didn’t want to hear it because I watch all of those crime shows,” she added.
The victim’s mother described Yazmeen as “funny, outgoing, stylish,” with a penchant for gold dresses and gold jewelry
