The suspect in a Bronx homicide and arson case on the run since 2017 was located in North Carolina and extradited back to New York last month.
According to police, 41-year-old Rodney Spratley was arrested on Aug. 23 and booked around 11 a..m inside the 43rd Precinct. Spratley was initially apprehended in Winston Salem, North Carolina, according to the Daily News. He is being charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Stratley was arrested in connection to an incident which took place on May 31, 2017, when police received a report pertaining to a residential fire inside of 2235 Gleason Ave. Avenue, in the Unionport section of the Bronx.
Upon arrival and extinguishment of the fire by the FDNY, police discovered a middle-aged man, later identified as 45-year-old Noel Farrow, unconscious and unresponsive in the kitchen area — from a gunshot wound to the head.
In addition, Stratley allegedly set fire to the apartment between 11 and 11:30 p.m. on that same night.
The victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS, is believed to have lived in the same third-floor apartment unit.
There have been several instances of arson in the borough within the last year. Three fires took place in five days at the end of January, including a four-alarm blaze in a Wakefield apartment building, a three-alarm basement fire in Crotona Park East and a two-alarm fire involving a 15-year old who was reported being seen with butane and a lighter on Evergreen Avenue in Soundview, which killed one person and injured two others.
In February, a five-alarm blaze took place inside of a C-Town Supermarket in Morris Heights, along with followed by a three-alarm fire that destroyed four houses and injured two firefighters in Little Yemen, and a high-rise fire in Claremont Village marked “suspicious” by the FDNY.
The Bronx Times reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District about this federal case for more information and is awaiting response.
Reach Steven Goodstein at sgoodstein@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4561. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
