{"id":349806,"date":"2026-09-18T00:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T00:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349806\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T00:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T00:58:16","slug":"mamdani-mourns-nyc-thief-accused-of-murdering-man-with-special-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349806\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani mourns NYC thief accused of murdering man with special needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered condolences Thursday for an accused murderer who died in Department of Corrections custody \u2014 mentioning nothing of the victim he allegedly killed.<\/p>\n<p>Luis Alberto Lopez Castillo was facing murder, manslaughter, robbery and weapons charges in connection with the 2025 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/28\/us-news\/nyc-teen-busted-in-fatal-shooting-of-autistic-man-as-grieving-sister-reveals-tragic-final-moments\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">slaying of 26-year-old autistic man<\/a> Ron Marte.<\/p>\n<p>Castillo was accused of robbing Marte of his cellphone during an early morning ambush in the Bronx\u2019s Starlight Park, where Castillo\u2019s alleged accomplice, Axel Martinez, reportedly shot Marte in the chest as he walked home from an Amazon warehouse shift.<\/p>\n<p>Luis Alberto Lopez Castillo is escorted by police on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, at the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx. Dean Moses<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI extend my condolences to his family,\u201d Mamdani wrote about Castillo on X.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Correction staff saw Castillo, 20, in \u201cmedical distress\u201d at Queens Criminal Court about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and performed CPR until EMS took him to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead just before 8 p.m., according to DOC which said they are still investigating the death.<\/p>\n<p>Castillo was in court that day for charges related to a separate incident, according to a report in Gothamist.<\/p>\n<p>Users on X ripped Mamdani for his mourning the accused killer and ignoring the victim.<\/p>\n<p>New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani mourned the death of the man who murdered a disabled man. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe robbed and murdered a 26 yo disabled man. You\u2019re a monster,\u201d one user posted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy do you mourn the death of prisoners and not one single victim,\u201d posted another user.<\/p>\n<p>The blowback echoed criticism Mamdani faced last month after he mourned the death of accused killer Clarence Woodward at Rikers Island.<\/p>\n<p>Relatives of Woodward\u2019s alleged victim called the mayor\u2019s remarks a \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/27\/us-news\/mamdani-mourns-accused-knife-wielding-killer-with-lengthy-rap-sheet-and-murder-victims-family-is-livid\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">slap in the face<\/a>\u201d because they did not acknowledge their loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s his pattern at this point,\u201d another user posted.<\/p>\n<p>This undated photo shows Ronell Marte, who was shot and killed during a robbery at Starlight Park in the Bronx. Marte was walking home after finishing his night shift at an Amazon warehouse. GoFundMe<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere you go again siding with criminals, sending your condolences to them instead of siding with the victims,\u201d another user wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have no moral compass, no decency, no conscience. Shame on you!,\u201d the user added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered condolences Thursday for an accused murderer who died in Department of Corrections custody \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,21470,57,9,24,63,1083,129,131,130,58,82],"class_list":["post-349806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-department-of-corrections","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-rikers-island","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}