Benderoth
HAVERSTRAW – Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding
a suicide that occurred in the Town of Haverstraw Wednesday morning in
which a former New York City and Haverstraw police officer shot and killed
himself as State Police and FBI agents were closing in on him.
He may have had some connection to the murders of four men in Chester
last year. Those were said to be related to drug dealing.
Law enforcement is mum on a motive for Gerard Benderoth, 48, taking his
own life as he was cornered in his vehicle. He was a friend of Nicholas
Tartaglione, the former Briarcliff Manor police officer who is accused
by federal authorities of killing the four men and burying their bodies
on his Otisville property.
State Police Troop F Commander Major Joseph Tripodo provided very little
information about the incident.
“In a joint law enforcement investigation with the FBI, there was
a car stop and as the officers walked up to the vehicle that was being
stopped in the Town of Haverstraw, Gerard Benderoth, 48 years old, of
the Town of Stony Point, by the use of a firearm, took his own life,”
Tripodo said.
The 370-pound Benderoth was among the leaders in the America’s
Strongest Man competitions and was nicknamed “The White Rhino.”
