RIVERHEAD — A former American Express employee was so enraged that his friends had told the company that a lawsuit he filed against it had no merit that he fired 11 shots through a window of their suburban New York home, killing one man and wounding a second, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
“He convinced himself that they were responsible for everything that had gone wrong,” Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said at a news conference following the arraignment of Brett Knight.
Knight, was ordered held without bail in the Sept. 24 killing of Ross Reisner, a popular equestrian on Long Island, and wounding of Reisner’s longtime partner, Kevin Murray. A grand jury indictment was unsealed that charges him with murder, attempted murder, aggravated harassment and illegal weapons possession.
Knight was a former tenant of Reisner and Murray in their Setauket home. He had worked at American Express until he was fired in 2009. Knight later sued the company, claiming that he had been improperly fired after executives learned that he was HIV-positive.
Spota declined to comment Wednesday on specific allegations made by Knight in the lawsuit, which was subsequently settled, but said Reisner and Murray had become aware that some of Knight’s claims in the lawsuit were false.
“Needless to say, American Express felt they were right in what they had done in terminating him,” Spota said. “Apparently Mr. Reisner and Mr. Murray felt that and concurred with American Express. They knew because Knight had given them, imparted certain information to them, that they knew was completely contrary to the allegations he had set forth in his complaint.”
American Express spokeswoman Marina Norville said after Knight’s arrest this month that he had been terminated as part of a companywide downsizing. She had no comment on the lawsuit nor Spota’s statement.
The prosecutor said Knight started sending harassing messages to Reisner and Murray last spring, including a box with a dead pigeon inside that contained a Bible passage that spoke of punishing wrongdoers. Spota said a second message allegedly sent from Knight to the couple quoted a Bible verse made popular in the 1990s film “Pulp Fiction,” again speaking about gaining vengeance for wrongdoing.
Knight fled Suffolk County after the homicide and was captured weeks later in Knoxville, Tenn., where he allegedly was in possession of two .40-caliber pistols, one of which was allegedly used in the shootings. He waived extradition back to New York.
Defense attorney Michael Brown said his client maintains that he is innocent, despite claims by prosecutors that Knight has made written and videotaped statements admitting he shot the men. Brown said he had no information regarding the American Express lawsuit.