Accused of 2022 shooting at Forrestal Heights
Beacon police on Tuesday (June 11) arrested a 24-year-old Beacon man who was charged with the 2022 murder of Lionell Pittman Jr.
Pittman, 32, was shot in May 2022 in the parking lot of the Forrestal Heights apartment complex on West Center Street. The police department said officers responded to the complex at about 6:50 p.m. after a report of shots fired.
On Tuesday, officers conducted a traffic stop on Fishkill Avenue and arrested Naije Perrette, 24, of Beacon. Perrette was charged with second-degree murder, arraigned in City Court and taken to the Dutchess County Jail.
In a statement, police said they would not release further information because of the ongoing investigation. The department credited the Dutchess County Drug Task Force with assistance on the arrest and the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office for the investigation.
Pittman’s murder is one of three recent killings in Beacon. In 2021, Rene Vivo, a 65-year-old veteran known as “Scout,” was stabbed on Christmas Day. In 2016, a 25-year-old man visiting the city was shot at the Davies South Terrace apartment complex. Police have not made arrests in either of those cases.
It seems disappointing that we have three recent murders and two are not solved. Not great statistics.
According to FBI data compiled by the Murder Accountability Project, the “clearance rate” in New York state for homicides (defined as, at the very least, police identifying a suspect) between 2010 and 2022 was 62 percent.
Push your local politicians to expand the budget for more resources to go to these police agencies. Beacon is critically understaffed because many transfer out to better positions with higher pay. The turnover rate is higher than most other areas around us.