DA: Son Struggled With Dad Accused In Lindenhurst Stabbing

LINDENHURST, NY — A Lindenhurst man accused of stabbing his wife and fleeing from police has been indicted, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced Thursday.

Ryszard Murawski, 44, faces felony charges of second-degree murder and aggravated criminal contempt. The second charge stems from the fact that his wife, Wioleta Murawski, had had an order of protection issued a week before she was killed, prosecutors said.

At his arraignment on the indictment, Acting Supreme Court Justice Karen M. Wilutis kept Murawski in jail. His next court date is Feb. 7.

His attorney, Keith O’Halloran, told Patch that Murawski, who has been distraught but cooperative, pleaded not guilty. "Now we start the process of sifting through the evidence, trying to see if we can unravel what happened here," he said.

According to the investigation, at 8:33 p.m. Jan. 3, Suffolk County Police received a 911 call from the couple’s 15-year-old son saying that his father had stabbed his mother, then driven away in a black pick-up truck.

The teen, distraught during the call, begged for help as he tried to save his mother’s life, prosecutors said.

He told police that when he returned home from a friend’s house, he heard his mother screaming for help. He told them he ran to the backyard, where he saw Murawski stabbing his mother with a large, serrated knife, prosecutors said.

“The sheer horror that young man must have felt to witness his mother being attacked is unfathomable,” Tierney said.

Prosecutors said the boy jumped on his father and struggled with him until his mother was able to break free.

Wioleta Murawski stumbled across the street before collapsing with her son by her side.
She was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Murawski fled in a GMC pick-up — and when police attempted to stop him, he refused to pull over, prosecutors said. Several police units chased Murawski with lights and sirens, for more than seven miles, before he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the side of a building.

Murawski’s home surveillance system captured a brutal attack, prosecutors said. A knife was recovered from the vicinity of the murder and a substantial amount of blood was found that trailed from that area to across the street where the victim collapsed.

“The brutality of this defendant’s alleged actions are only made worse by the fact that he attacked the mother of his child in front of that child," Tierney said. "Now, he will be held to account for his actions.”

The case is prosecuted by ADA Sheetal Shetty of the Homicide Bureau with investigative assistance from Detective Adam Quinones of the Suffolk County Police Department.

SEE: Murder Charge For Man Accused Of Stabbing Wife, Crashing Truck: Police