A woman who was a family friend to the 91-year-old man who died after he and his 100-year-old wife were tied up in their Brooklyn home earlier this month was arrested Monday in connection with his death, police said.
Suzette K. Troutman, 45, of Brooklyn, was a friend to Thompson and his wife, Ethlin, and often helped them with chores and errands, an NYPD spokesman said.
But on Oct. 11, she dropped off and picked up the robbers who tied the couple up and ransacked their Bedford-Stuyvesant home, prosecutors said. One of the robbers was Troutman’s nephew, 27-year-old Dwayne Blackwood, according to the criminal complaint.
Blackwood was arrested Friday, but the second man was still being sought, police said.
The two are accused of storming into the Thompsons’ home on Decatur Street, near Marcus Garvey Boulevard, at about 3:30 p.m. They restrained Ethlin Thompson with a belt and tied up Waldiman Thompson with a cord before covering his head with a sheet, the complaint says.
They took a lockbox and other items from the home and then fled the scene, prosecutors said.
Troutman, Blackwood and the third suspect were caught on video surveillance inside a black Nissan Rogue near the Thompsons’ home before and after the incident, and again at Blackwood’s residence removing the items taken from the victims’ house, the complaint says. There was also a child in the car, according to the complaint.
Ethlin Thompson was able to free herself and call police after the men left.
Waldiman Thompson was rushed to Interfaith Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. Ethlin Thompson was treated at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County for injuries to her leg related to being tied up.
The medical examiner’s office later ruled Waldiman Thompson’s death a homicide, citing sudden cardiac arrest.
Both Troutman and Blackwood were charged with second-degree murder, assault and burglary, police said.
