I had to kill prof
Hammer susp’s weird victim claim
THE MAN ACCUSED of bludgeoning a New School professor to death with a hammer in Brooklyn claimed Tuesday he was the victim.
“I was defending myself,” Mirzo Atadzhanov, dressed in a white Tyvek suit, said in a low voice as detectives escorted him to Central Booking in the killing of husband and father Jeremy Safran. “I did nothing wrong.”
Atadzhanov, 28, was taken into custody when police arrived at Safran’s Ditmas Park home Monday and found him, covered in blood, cowering in a basement closet.
Detectives charged him with murder and burglary. But the motive for Safran’s slaying remained unclear Tuesday.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea initially said police were investigating whether Atadzhanov may have been a former student of the 66-yearold professor, but a further investigation revealed the two did not know each other.
Law enforcement sources said Atadzhanov was arrested in December 2016 on attempted rape, assault and forcible touching charges after allegedly trying to force himself on a 23-year-old Canadian tourist who had arranged to stay at his Sheepshead Bay apartment through the website Couchsurfing.com.
Charges against Atadzhanov were dropped at his first court appearance for the attempted rape because the victim returned home, sources said.
A woman at Atadzhanov’s apartment refused to speak to a reporter on Tuesday. His arraignment on the murder and burglary charges was pending Tuesday night.
Safran’s neighbor saw Atadzhanov slip into the victim’s home.
Doreen Giuliano, 56, told reporters she noticed a man casing the home for hours Monday afternoon as he sat in a black Lexus.
“He parked the car, walked down the block, came back up and went down her alley. Then he got back in his car and sat there for three hours,” Giuliano said.
“He came down the alley way and put something in his trunk, and he was looking left to right, left to right, and then he went back and he went in the side door.”
In shock, Giuliano texted Safran’s wife and asked her if she had a tenant or a worker in the home. She said “No.” “I said, ‘Then you have an intruder,’ ” Giuliano said.
Giuliano ran down the stairs to the Stratford Road home and Safran’s wife and daughter came outside.
“Her daughter stood on the porch and we stood on the lawn and she said it was very strange that the basement light went out,” Giuliano said.
“And then she said, ‘But my husband, Jeremy, is around here somewhere. All the while we were on the lawn, he (Atadzhanov) was in the basement.”
It was just before 6 p.m. and they thought they could hear scuffling in the basement. Police were called and arrived within a minute, she said.
“They ran into the basement and that’s when they found her husband — and the intruder hiding in the closet,” Giuliano said.
When the police brought Atadzhanov in handcuffs to their squad car, his hands were covered in blood, she said.
“This is very scary that someone could climb into your house and hide in the basement,” she said. “I think he was waiting to get the ladies. It just scares me half to death that someone could be lurking in the basement and then kill your husband and just wait for you.” Giuliano (below) said she’d known the professor for 15 years. “Jeremy is the sweetest man,” she said. “He’s the type of guy that would drop everything to help you. He was a hardworking guy. He was always ready to help someone.” She said later, while at the 70th Precinct stationhouse, she could hear Safran’s wife and daughter wailing with grief.
“I understand that I got them out of the house, but if I was a few minutes sooner,” she said, breaking into tears. “I think I could have saved Jeremy, too. If I would have just seen him go in a little sooner. It’s so sad. I’m grateful that I got the ladies out.”
Safran, who lived in the home with his wife and two daughters, had taught at the New School since 1993 and was the author of several books.
Giuliano previously earned notoriety for going undercover to investigate juror misconduct in the trial of her son John Giuca in the 2003 murder of Mark Fischer in Brooklyn.
Giuca was convicted in 2005, but his conviction was overturned in February by an appeals court. Prosecutors have appealed the decision.