Levi Aron: Accused killer says he ‘panicked’
In his first interview since the murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, accused killer Levi Aron referred to the brutal slaying of the boy as “the incident.”
In an hour-long interview from Rikers Island, Aron told the Daily News that he doesn’t know why he did it.
“I don’t know what happened,” Aron said. “I just panicked.”
He would not say he was sorry for the murder of the 8-year-old Hasidic boy, but at one point nodded his head when asked if he would like to apologize. He also never spoke Leiby Kletzky’s name.
Police say Aron took Kletzky to his house last month when the boy asked him for directions after getting lost on his way home.
“He looked familiar. I thought I knew him,” he told the Daily News.
Aron told police he brought the boy to a wedding, but Kletzky stayed in the car. Aron said he was planning to take him back home the next day, but then noticed missing child posters in his neighborhood. That’s when Aron returned home and fed the boy a deadly combination of drugs hidden inside a tuna sandwich.
The boy’s body was later found dismembered in Aron’s home, but police say there was no evidence of molestation. During the interview, Aron stressed several times that the boy slept in the living room and not his bedroom.
When asked if he wishes he had never met Kletzky, Aron replied, “Sometimes.”
Aron also said he occasionally hears voices but would not go into detail about what they say to him.
He has been found fit to stand trial.
