Levi Aron Stops Short of Apologizing in Jailhouse Interview
The Forward
The accused killer of Brooklyn boy Leiby Kletzky reportedly said he tries not to think about the brutal murder and says he “panicked,” but stopped short of apologizing for what he called “the incident.”
Speaking out for the first time, Levi Aron told the Daily News that he has difficulty even thinking about the days when the 8-year-old boy was abducted and later murdered.
“It hurts too much to think about it,” Aron, 35, told the News from Rikers Island in his first interview since the July 11 murder.
“I don’t know what happened,” Aron said. “I just panicked.”
His eyes were watery throughout the two hour interview and he wore a grey prison jumpsuit.
Aron would not directly apologize for the murder and only nodded his head and looked away when asked whether he was sorry for his actions.
He referred to the murder as “the incident” and said he thought he knew Kletzky from the Boro Park neighborhood where they both lived.
“He looked familiar. I thought I knew him,” Aron told the News.
Kletzky disappeared as he walked home from summer camp alone for the first time. Security video showed him walking with Aron and getting into a car.
After a massive search, cops found Kletzky’s body parts in Aron’s refrigerator and a nearby trash container.
Aron, whose lawyers say hears voices, faces murder charges. Cops say he confessed to smothering the boy.
An autopsy report also found pain-killers and sedatives in the boy’s body, suggesting he was drugged before being killed.
The killing has sparked new debate in the Jewish community about reporting child abuse, with Orthodox groups split over whether Jews should immediately call the police, or first go to religious authorities. It has also sparked more calls foroversight of yeshivas, which do not have to screen employees like public schools do in New York.
NYC child-killer suspect unrepentant
ynet
Levi Aron, who is being charged with the murder and dismemberment of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, has yet to express any remorse.
“It hurts too much to think about it,” he told the New York Daily News on Friday. “I don’t know what happened. I just panicked.”
Aron initially confessed to the allegations against him but later retracted his confession.
“I remember little things,” he told the paper without elaborating.
Asked why he targeted 8-year-old Leiby, he said: “He looked familiar. I thought I knew him.”
Aron noted he gave Leiby a tuna sandwich for breakfast the day following the abduction. An autopsy later revealed a fatal cocktail of drugs inside the boy’s body.
The interview suggests that little Leiby had a chance to escape when Aron urged him to come to a wedding with him, but the boy refused. “He didn’t want to come, so I let him stay in the car with the windows down,” Aron said.
A psychiatric opinion submitted last week deemed Aron fit to stand trial. “I sometimes hear voices,” he told The News, but refused to describe them or relay what they told him.
Finally, asked if he wished he had never met Leiby, Aron replied, “Sometimes.”
