Wife-slaying suspect dead
By MARCELA ROJAS, ERNIE GARCIA AND JOE AX
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: September 20, 2004)
VALHALLA — A man accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife and abducting their three children in Mamaroneck was found dead early this morning after he dropped the children off at a Davis Avenue house and fled on foot.
The massive manhunt for Clifford Bonner, 41, ended shortly before 1 a.m. when he was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Lt. Mary Matero of the Mamaroneck village police said. His body was found behind a deli at 160 Legion Drive.
"The children are safe and sound and uninjured," Matero said earlier. Sheila, 11, Stacy, 9, and James, 7, were medically evaluated and were in police custody, she said.
Heavily armed police had searched a wide swath encompassing Legion Drive, Commerce Street, Grasslands Road and Davis Avenue using dogs and a helicopter. The children apparently were dropped off at 4 Davis Ave., which is thought to be the home of Bonner's father.
The white 1993 Mercury Villager minivan in which Bonner fled with the children on Saturday also was found.
At 11:15 p.m., several police officers with guns drawn swept down on a car at Virginia Road and Hillside Avenue, forcing the driver out and frisking him. He turned out not to be Bonner.
Dozens of heavily armed police officers from several agencies, including state police, Westchester County, Greenburgh, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, swarmed through the area yesterday as an armored vehicle made its way past Grasslands Road.
Mamaroneck village police earlier yesterday pleaded for Bonner to turn himself in.
"Our main concern is for the children," Matero said during an afternoon news conference at police headquarters. "Please release the children and surrender yourself."
Police said they had been pursuing hundreds of tips after Bonner fled in the minivan with the three children. He was accused of killing his wife, Michelle Bonner, 30, and critically injuring her half-sister, Candice Rampersad, 18, after a dispute at Columbus Park on Van Ranst Place in Mamaroneck village.
Michelle Bonner was pronounced dead at Sound Shore Medical Center of Westchester in New Rochelle at 3:50 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Rampersad was on life support at the hospital, her distraught father, Ramdeo Rampersad, said last night at his home on South Seventh Avenue in Mount Vernon. Candice Rampersad, a Mount Vernon High School graduate, is a freshman nursing student at Lehman College in the Bronx, her father said.
"Why should it happen to me now?" said Ramdeo Rampersad, an auto-body technician. "I do not believe in hurting another person."
Police said Clifford Bonner was armed with a 9 mm handgun and possibly with a rifle and shotgun.
An Amber Alert issued Saturday was in effect until the children were found late last night.
During the earlier news conference, Mamaroneck village Detective Bernard McNally said police had "no confirmed sightings."
McNally and Officer Eugene Guadagnolo headed the investigation, with assistance from Yonkers and Westchester County police.
Police said witnesses told them that the couple, who had split about two months ago, argued for about 30 minutes before the shooting occurred. Police were uncertain what the argument was about and who had the children at the time, Matero said.
Michelle Bonner had informal custody of the children and was thought to be living with a friend in Mount Vernon, police said. Clifford Bonner was unemployed with no known address. Police said he possibly lived in his vehicle and frequented Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Somers and Brewster.
At the Bonners' former address, 129 Linden St. in Yonkers, one neighbor said the family did not appear to have problems.
"I'm very surprised at what happened. They lived here a long time and it didn't look like anything was wrong," said resident Blanca Salazar. "But he did always look angry. If you said 'Hello,' he wouldn't answer. He wouldn't talk to anyone."
Yesenia Herrera, 23, an insurance verifier who has lived at 129 Linden St. for six years, said she did not speak much with the Bonners. She said she thought the family moved out of the building in 2003.
"He didn't speak with anybody," she said.
Herrera added that on occasion she would overhear the couple arguing, but didn't remember any serious escalations.
"In fact, you couldn't really tell that there were problems. The only thing is that they were very serious," Herrera said.
One of the Bonners' neighbors at 25 Saratoga Ave. in Yonkers, their last address together, had a very different recollection.
"The guy was off his rocker," said Ernesto Decoteau, 65, who identified himself as a retired New York City police officer.
Decoteau said that Clifford Bonner lived on the third floor of the building for about a year, until a July 6 fire in the apartment that fire officials ruled an arson.
Shortly before the fire, Bonner was despondent because he had lost his job as a carter and separated from his wife, Decoteau said.
"You could hear them fighting. They were very loud. Everyone in the building complained to one another," said Decoteau, adding that he did not remember the police ever coming to the building in response to the Bonners' disputes.
Decoteau also said that at other times the couple seemed happy.
Nonetheless, Decoteau said, he heard Bonner threaten to use violence, though initially he did not take the threat seriously.
"He had a grievance with the landlord, and he said he would damage the apartment if he had to leave, but people talk. I didn't think he would go that far," said Decoteau, referring to an arrest warrant for Bonner in connection with the fire at the six-family house.
On the day of the fire, authorities said empty gasoline cans were found in the third-floor apartment of a man who was being evicted.
Bonner also was charged with a Pelham assault in 1999. He was accused of dragging a 51-year-old Mount Vernon man from a car and beating him with a nightstick in a 1996 road-rage incident on Wolfs Lane. The victim was treated at Sound Shore Medical Center and released.
Police lost track of Bonner, who had sold the Volkswagen Rabbit that he was seen driving away from that attack.
Pelham police periodically checked driver registration records and found Bonner when his wife registered a car using her married name and the couple's 129 Linden St. address, where he was arrested two years and four months after the road-rage attack. The disposition of the first-degree assault charge was unavailable.
In 1993, Bonner was arrested by Carmel police on an Army desertion charge. He was released to the custody of military police from Fort Hamilton, N.Y.
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