Leslie Torres (born March 5, 1970) is an American

spree killer A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations ...

who, in the period from January 1 to 8, 1988, attacked 11 people in the

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Five people died from the attacks and six were left severely injured. He later turned himself in and confessed to the crimes, of which he was convicted and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

. At the time of the crimes, Torres was 17 years old, making him one of the youngest recorded spree killers in American history.

Early life

Leslie Torres was born on April 12, 1970, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Puerto Rican parents. Until 1977, he lived with his parents in East Harlem, where the largest Hispanic diaspora lived in the city, but after they divorced, Torres moved with his mother to Puerto Rico. They lived in an area plagued by poverty and crime, which affected the Torreses. In the mid-1980s, Torres lost interest in studying and began to spend most of his time on the streets, where he began to drink alcohol and use drugs. He was eventually kicked out of school and left Puerto Rico in the summer of 1987, returning to New York City, where his father lived. He continued to abuse drugs and developed an addiction to

crack cocaine Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment'' calls ...

that eventually resulted in him leaving his father's house and living on the streets. By that time, the cost of crack cocaine had reached from $300 to $500, due to which Torres decided to start robbing people to fund his habits.

Murders

On January 1, 1988, Torres entered a store in East Harlem and robbed two men at gunpoint. After they gave him their money, Torres fired several shots from his .22 caliber revolver at them - the first received a severe gunshot wound to the chest, while the second injured his wrist, but both survived. Half an hour later, Torres attacked a 38-year-old woman in another district, wounding her in the arm and buttocks, but she also survived. Another half hour later, Torres confronted 62-year-old Horatio Rivera and shot him twice in the head, killing him. Later that same evening, he committed another robbery, but nobody was harmed on this occasion. In total, he managed to steal only 28 dollars. On the afternoon of January 2, Torres committed three robberies in the East Harlem area. In the first case, he robbed a furniture store, but caused no serious harm to anyone. He then went to another store, where he shot and killed the store owner, 40-year-old

Ecuadorian Ecuadorians ( es, ecuatorianos) are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collect ...

immigrant Milton Ronquillo. Half an hour later, Torres went to another grocery store and shot at three people: a teenager, Shawn Foster, was wounded, but the store owner, Alberto Paypumps, died on the scene. On the late evening of January 7, Torres robbed another store and shot two men - one of the victims, 28-year-old Pablo Rojas, died in hospital from his injuries two hours after his admission, while the other, 34-year-old Juan Corona, was left permanently blinded. On the late evening on the following day, Torres robbed another grocery store in East Harlem, where he shot and killed the clerk, Jesus Rivera, by shooting him once in the head. He then stole a small amount of cash and a portable radio. From the eight-day robbery spree, he had stolen less than $2,000.

Arrest

In the midst of the attacks, the New York City Police Department organized a task force of about 100 men to investigate the robberies and murders. On January 8, just a few minutes after Rivera's murder, Torres was noticed by three police officers patrolling the area. Since he matched the suspect's description, they approached to question him, but Torres fled. Officers chased him for 20 minutes, eventually cornering him on a rooftop of an apartment building, whereupon he surrendered without further incident. At the time of his arrest, he did not have his gun at hand, having apparently dropped it during the chase. The weapon was later found inside a snow-filled trash can.

Public outcry

After his arrest, Torres confessed to all the crimes he had committed, blaming them on his addiction to crack cocaine. The incident once again sparked a wave of debates about tougher penalties for juveniles and a change of nature regarding the handling of

War on Drugs The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...

. At a press conference held after Torres' arrest, Chief Detective Robert Colangelo said that the situation in East Harlem was due to the widespread use and availability of crack cocaine in the area. He also noted that Torres was the first known example of a drug addict committing violent crimes, rather than a drug dealer.

Trial and imprisonment

Torres was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, six counts of attempted murder and nine counts of first-degree robbery. In addition to his own confession, investigators presented ballistics and forensic evidence that linked Torres and his gun to the murders. Not only that, but eleven witnesses also positively identified him as the shooter when presented with photographs of potential suspects. The trial began in early 1989. Torres' attorneys pleaded that their client be ruled insane, since he had no control over his actions due to his addiction, but evidence presented by the prosecutors suggested that he had not been using drugs at the time of the murders. Ultimately, Torres was found guilty on all charges on February 27, after the jury deliberated for 19 minutes. He remained calm throughout the proceedings and expressed no emotions when the guilty verdict was read out. On April 14 of that year, Torres was sentenced to life imprisonment with a chance of parole after serving 60 years and 10 months. He is currently incarcerated at the

Clinton Correctional Facility Clinton Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision maximum security state prison for men located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. The prison is sometimes colloquially referred to as Dannem ...

in Dannemora.

References

External links

New York Inmate Locator
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Leslie 1970 births 20th-century American criminals American male criminals American people convicted of murder American people of Puerto Rican descent American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment American spree killers Criminals from New York City History of New York City Living people Murder committed by minors People convicted of murder by New York (state) Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New York (state)