Brutal Queens slay
Kin say cops left & punks killed disabled father
A disabled Queens man who was stabbed and strangled by a pair of men in a gas station parking lot would still be alive today, the victim’s wife and son say, if cops had stuck around after the family was attacked by the same hooligans.
Curtis Rippe, 58, was stabbed to death Thursday night in the parking lot of a Corona Mobil station on Horace Harding Expressway near 108th St., where he lived out of a Honda CRV with his family. A rosary that his wife had given him just five days prior was wrapped so tightly around his neck that it had to be cut off, his son, Ritchie Rippe said.
“They made me lose my faith in the justice system, because the cops were there and they couldn’t even help him,” Ritchie said. “If they stayed there taking the report, this wouldn’t have happened.”
The man’s widow, Carolann Rippe, 52, said that her husband’s death was the culmination of an argument that she had with the same men who killed him.
She said that she was sitting in the car with their son, Ritchie, 26, when the men approached and tried to solicit sex from her.
“I said ‘Get the f—- away from me,’ ” Carolann recalled.
Curtis was elsewhere, she said, perhaps cleaning the gas station bathroom, when the indecent proposal was made. Curtis often cleaned the commode in exchange for coffee
and snacks.
The harassment continued. Carolann recalled that one of the men threatened to rape her, prompting her to blast him with pepper spray through her car window.
The spray hit her son as well. Ritchie fled the car and was instantly knocked unconscious by the men, she said.
“The guys were attacking, beating the hell out of her,” Ritchie said. “I went to get out of the car, and the big guy knocked me out cold.”
Carolann said she was beaten, but managed to call the police.
When cops from the 110th Precinct got there, however, the men had already fled. Carolann and Ritchie insisted cops didn’t take a report — a claim disputed by the NYPD.
Regardless, cops weren’t there when the two suspects returned, accompanied by a third man.
“They watched the cops leave, they’re banging on the window, telling (Ritchie) to get out of the car,” Carolann said.
Fearing another beating, the mother and son fled in the car, frantically looking for the officers to return to the scene and arrest their antagonists.
While they were gone, the two believe Curtis crossed paths with the suspects.
It’s unclear what happened, but the family believes that the same men attacked Curtis, stabbing him repeatedly in the upper body.
They returned to the gas station and found Curtis in the parking lot, already dead.
“My dad was on the ground. He was in his own pool of blood, it was so bad,” Ritchie said. “They took his rosary, his necklace, they wrapped it around so tight. We had to cut the necklace.”
The NYPD said Raul Franco, 26, of Flushing was arrested at 7:30 a.m. Friday and charged with assault. Police did not say that he was a suspect in the stabbing death. The NYPD did not answer follow-up questions regarding the Rippe family’s account.
Curtis got around with aid of a walker. He was a fixture in the neighborhood kept an eye on the gas station in exchange for being allowed to stay there.
“Sometimes he helps me with customers, he’s a good man,” said gas station worker Sam Oommem, 69.
The dead man’s walker was still outside the bathroom on Friday.
A firefighter at a nearby firehouse said Curtis often helped block traffic when the truck was pulling out onto the street to respond to emergencies.
“Everybody loves my dad. He’s been using that walker for five years. They did that to a guy who can’t even walk. He couldn’t even defend himself,” Ritchie said.
Folks in the neighborhood said the victim was a familiar sight at the intersection, begging for change with a bucket.
The bucket was still near the gas station Friday afternoon, with 35 cents at the bottom.
Ritchie’s faith in the police has been shattered.
“We’re just driving around, crying,” said Ritchie.
His mother agreed.
“I don’t even want to stay in my car anymore. I’m afraid, I don’t know what to do or where to go,” Carolann said.