{"id":371486,"date":"2026-10-13T00:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T00:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/371486\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T00:34:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T00:34:26","slug":"nypd-makes-arrest-in-fatal-beating-outside-chelsea-sex-shop-as-suspect-goes-back-for-his-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/371486\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD makes arrest in fatal beating outside Chelsea sex shop as suspect goes back for his phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 60-year-old man was beaten to death on a Manhattan street outside a Chelsea sex shop by a younger attacker who ran off but was arrested when he returned to the scene to retrieve his cell phone, police<\/a> said Monday.<\/p>\n

Imani McColley, 25, who is already facing an array of charges across the city, was hit early Monday with murder and robbery charges in the fatal beating on 8th Ave. near W. 21st St.<\/p>\n

The victim, identified late Monday as\u00a0Lawrence Parente of Pocono Summit, Pa.,\u00a0was bashed in the head after getting into an argument with McColley about 11 p.m. Sunday at the Rainbow Station sex store, which specializes in adult sexual paraphernalia, sources said.<\/p>\n

The argument spilled out onto the street. Medics responding to the assault rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital<\/a> but he could not be saved.<\/p>\n

Police say McColley ran off with the victim\u2019s wallet, then returned to the scene about 30 minutes later to retrieve his cell phone, at which point at least one witness pointed him out to officers. A witness told the News cops chased McColley down Eighth Avenue before taking him into custody.<\/p>\n

McColley has seven priors arrests \u2013 including an assault charge in the same spot as Sunday\u2019s homicide. Court papers in the Sept. 20, 2025 arrest say McColley \u201cwith the intent to harass, annoy, threaten and alarm another person, struck, shoved, kicked and otherwise subjected another person to physical contact thereby causing physical injury to such person.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no detail on what led to that attack, for which McColley faces misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment. He was let go on supervised release.<\/p>\n

Records show he has three open cases \u2014 including a Bronx assault and weapons cases for which he is due in court Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Following the fight at Rainbow Station Sunday, neighborhood resident Camryn Leclair came outside after hearing sirens t and saw medics remove the victim from the store on a stretcher and perform chest compressions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were still police cars here and then they found [the suspect] like 30 minutes later,\u201d Leclair said. \u201cHe must have left and returned to the scene,\u201d Leclair said.<\/p>\n

When he noticed the cops swarming the area, McColley took off \u201cfast\u201d down Eighth Ave., Leclair said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom here, I saw him run down the street and the police chased him on foot and then brought him back here.\u201d<\/p>\n

After cops caught McColley they put him on a stretcher and loaded him into an ambulance, Leclair said. \u201cOnce they got him on the stretcher, he was just screaming, \u2018I didn\u2019t do nothing. I did nothing. Get me out of this f\u2014ing cop car. Get me out of this stretcher,\u201d Leclair recalled. \u201cThere was like 10 cops all around him restraining him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disturbances in and around Rainbow Station are \u201cnot out of the ordinary at all,\u201d according to Leclair, who has lived next door to the shop for about a month. \u201cWe\u2019re terrified. We tried to go to the police and have this place shut down or at least investigated,\u201d Leclair said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just moved in and we\u2019re considering finding a new place to live,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Rainbow Station, which is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week, has been a magnet for controversy in the neighborhood,\u00a0with residents complaining<\/a> about its clientele and in 2014 llnking its presence to a perceived increase in crime. That connection was disputed at the time by NYPD crime prevention officer George Triantis.<\/p>\n

In July 2022, a\u00a0 29-year-old patron was found dead inside one of the private pornography viewing booths in the shop\u2019s basement, according to local news reports. That same month two people were arrested<\/a> for brutally beating a man in front of the shop.<\/p>\n

And in 2023, a shop security guard was slashed<\/a> across the arm by a man with a knife, ABC 7 New York reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 60-year-old man was beaten to death on a Manhattan street outside a Chelsea sex shop by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,10,12,63],"class_list":["post-371486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371486","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=371486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}