A Lindhurst man is under arrest in the stabbing death of a CVS store employee on Christmas night.
Suffolk Police announced Friday that 43-year-old John Pilaccio was taken into custody and booked for second-degree murder.
The victim, Edeedson Cine Jr. was not scheduled to work on Thursday’s holiday, but he was called in to fill a shift at the CVS store in Lindenhurst. His family said he went to work eager, as he always did.
But the 23-year-old, who had worked at the store for almost a year, would never come home.
Police said he was stabbed to death inside the pharmacy on Montauk Highway just before 7 p.m.
“It appeared that this poor kid went to work on Christmas, he was…assaulted while working behind the counter at the store,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina.
Before the arrest was made, Catalina had called out CVS and its policies for not immediately releasing video from inside the store to detectives.
“The video shouldn’t have been held for 18 minutes let alone 18 hours, so it’s been pretty frustrating,” said Catalina. “Quite frankly, that has hampered our ability to make an arrest in this investigation. I’m shocked and appalled by it.”
In response, CVS said that the video requested by Suffolk County police was sent to them at 12:30 p.m. Friday.
“It took quite a bit of time to pull and package in the specific manner they asked for. We requested they confirm receipt and ability to view, but have not yet heard back,” a spokesperson for the company told NBC New York.
Without video from inside the store, the police commissioner said detectives worked through the night, speaking with witnesses and canvassing for video at locations outside the CVS, which led them to a “person of interest” and the eventual arrest.
“Based on the person of interest and his background, I can only assume he was in the store for nefarious reasons and it’s possible the confrontation was as a result of that. But it’s early in the investigation,” Catalina said.
Pilaccio was arraigned Saturday in Central Islip.
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