CCTV: NYC man charged in Harlem park slashing spree that left doctor dead
A violent ex-con has been charged in a rampage that left two dead — including a hard-working pediatrician who was found with his throat slit in a Harlem park, NYPD officials announced Monday.
Roland Codrington, 35, was driving the black Mercedes Benz of beloved Manhattan pediatrician Bruce Maurice Henry — whose bloodied body was found Friday in Marcus Garvey Park — when he was caught on Christmas Day, cops said.
He is also accused of stabbing patrons at an Upper East Side bar and in the death of a 51-year-old Lower East Side man, police said.
“Three clairvoyant officers from the 30th Precinct have been arrested,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell told reporters.
“It was a great plan on Christmas Day when everyone was out shopping, we were still working,” Chell said. “Thank God we put it to bed.
The blood spree reportedly began on Dec. 19 with the death of James Cunningham, who was found dead on an East Village street around 1 a.m. Police said the victim had left a nearby bar where he had drunk a drink and left.
A bartender at the watering hole told officers he heard officers outside and went outside to see the victim lying in a pool of blood on Avenue A near East 13th Street with a 10-inch gash on his neck, police said.
Cops said Codrington, who was with his girlfriend at the time, got into an argument with Cunningham outside the bar and slashed him within 20 seconds.
“Our man was just leaving the business,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said at a briefing Monday. “There’s no previous interaction. They bump into each other. They have a 20-second argument caught on camera.
“And our perpetrator just pulls out a knife, slashes his neck, and then walks away.
Days later, on Dec. 22, Codrington allegedly assaulted a bartender at Teddy’s Bar on Second Avenue and stabbed two patrons who came to the victim’s aid, police said.
Codrington, who had been kicked out of the bar during a dispute about a week earlier, walked in with a pit bull dog and a baseball bat, confronted the bartender and “destroyed the property,” Essig said.
“When two customers intervened, they were both stabbed by a large knife that the man was carrying,” the chief said, adding that Codrington reportedly “felt disrespected” after the previous incident.
Codrington was walking in Marcus Garvey Park to cool off after the attack when he allegedly ran into Henry and had a “verbal exchange” with the 60-year-old doctor before stabbing him to death, Essig said.
The pediatrician was found dead with his throat slit and stabbed multiple times in Marcus Garvey Park around 2:15 a.m. on December 23. The vicious killing, which took place one day before Henry’s birthday, baffled the police, who claimed they had no motive for the murder.
Neighbors said the hard-working doctor had been seen leaving his Spuyten-Duyvil building the day before dressed casually.
“Without any video in the park, NYPD detectives went to work,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press briefing Monday.
“After searching the crime scene and reviewing countless leads, your detectives were able to connect this homicide to another homicide in the 9th Precinct of a 51-year-old man and a separate attack that ultimately resulted in the post-department arrest of Roland Codrington – a broad collaboration of intelligence, resources and skills,” Sewell said .
Codrington was arrested after officers allegedly stopped him driving Henry’s stolen car at Jerome Avenue and 166th Street in the Bronx on Saturday, Essig said. Detectives were eventually able to connect all three incidents.
“We’re looking at all the unprovoked stabbings around town to see if he did something else,” Essig said.
Codrington already had a list of violent crimes on his rap sheet.
“He has 12 prior arrests, including some vehicle-related arrests from 2022, assault with a weapon and [in] 2017 two assaults with a weapon, 2013, possession of a knife in commission of a crime, 2012 two counts of assault, 2006 knife robbery and assault with a knife ,” said the chief.
“He is now charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, one count of second-degree assault and one count of criminal mischief,” Essig said.
Law enforcement sources told The Post that Codrington had as many as 20 busts in the past, some of them sealed, the most recent arrest on Jan. 20 for an altered VIN number on a motorcycle.
He was charged with third-degree assault in the June 9, 2021 incident and assault with intent to injure on Sept. 13, 2017, sources said.
He was also reportedly hit with a gun possession rap in 2013 and a string of arrests ranging from second-degree robbery to fare evasion in 2005, according to sources.
Codrington also had an outstanding warrant before his new arrest. It was not immediately clear what case the arrest warrant issued in September was related to.
Records show he served three stints in state prison, most recently being released from Mohawk Correctional Facility in Oneida County in April 2021 after serving a three- to six-year sentence for a gun possession rap.
He was also sentenced to up to four years on another gun possession charge and was released in August 2017 and served two years for attempted robbery before being released in 2012, records show.
Police did not reveal a motive for the recent deadly attacks.
“All his arrests are knife-related,” one high-ranking police source told The Post on Monday. “He has a bad temper, I guess.”
