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WILKES-BARRE — City and Luzerne County detectives are investigating the death of a man whose body was found inside a Carey Avenue apartment Friday, ending a work week filled with violence in the city.
“We’ve been a little bit busier than normal,” Police Chief Robert Hughes said Friday when he briefly addressed the media after the body of Peter Bielecki Jr., 49, was found inside 70 Carey Ave. Friday morning.
District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, however, said the man appeared to have been shot. If so, that makes four shootings in the city in a 36-hour period. She declined to provide further details until after an autopsy.
Earlier Friday, two people police did not identify were shot outside Club Envy, an after–hours club at 650 S. Main St., just after 4 a.m. Police said neither person sustained life threatening injuries as they were treated at a local hospital.
Hughes said Bielecki’s death is “suspicious.” He would not confirm a report that 911 received a call about a shooting victim inside the residence. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, Hughes said.
“It’s obvious it’s a suspicious manner,” Hughes said. “Until we get a ruling by the coroner’s office, I really can’t comment any further.”
Coroner Bill Lisman and deputy coroners Dan Hughes and Tom Moran removed Bielecki’s body from the residence just before 1 p.m.
Several residents on nearby Susquehanna Street said the neighborhood is “a disgrace,” filled with drugs and nuisance properties. Three uncapped syringes were seen near a storm grate on Susquehanna Street.
“It’s not a problem house,” Hughes said about 70 Carey Ave., a double block house with 68 Carey Ave. “Right now we are considering it a suspicious death and we’re going to investigate it that way.”
Bielecki is the son of Peter Bielecki Sr., owner of Bielecki Recycling Center on North Pennsylvania Avenue. Property records list Peter Sr. as owner of the Carey Avenue property with an in-ground pool behind a privacy fence.
Hughes said he believed Bielecki lived alone and a family member discovered the body at about 9:30 a.m. There were no window coverings, such as curtains or shades, at 70 Carey Ave.
Other shootings
The shooting at Club Envy is the second gunfire incident in recent weeks at the after-hours club.
Police said a 29-year-old man from Nanticoke sustained a gunshot wound to the back of the neck early in the morning of March 15. Police learned about the shooting when they stopped a vehicle for speeding as the victim was a passenger in the car on its way to a hospital.
The investigation into a deadly shooting on Wednesday night is continuing. Lisman said an autopsy on the body of Jason Khaleen-Rowe, 25, of Bronx, New York, on Friday revealed he died from a single gunshot wound to the pelvis.
The manner of death for Khaleen-Rowe is pending further investigation, Lisman said.
Police believe Khaleen-Rowe was in the passenger seat of a vehicle on South Street near Meade Street handing two handguns to Delroy Toomer, 25, of Scott Street, Wilkes-Barre, just before 10 p.m. Wednesday.
Police said a witness, not named in the criminal complaint, claimed she was driving in a vehicle with Toomer following another vehicle occupied by Khaleen-Rowe.
The witness told police she remembered she had two handguns under the passenger seat of the other vehicle. While stopped on South Street, the witness told Toomer to retrieve the handguns.
Khaleen-Rowe gave Toomer a pistol and the second handgun which Toomer grabbed it in a reckless manner causing it to discharge a round, the complaint says.
Police allege in the complaint Toomer returned to the second car and took the handguns to his residence.
Khaleen-Rowe was driven to General Hospital arriving just before 10 p.m. and rushed into the emergency room with several people with him. Police were alerted to the shooting when Khaleen-Rowe arrived at the hospital.
Khaleen-Rowe died at 9:50 a.m. Thursday, according to the coroner’s office.
Before Khaleen-Rowe died, police charged Toomer with aggravated assault, carrying a firearm without a license and tampering with evidence. He remains jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $100,000 bail.