NEW YORK, United States – A suspect in Tuesday’s triple murder in Queens, New York, has been charged. Police identified the man as 54-year-old David Daniel who is said to have Jamaican roots.

Daniel turned himself into police after the stabbings in St Albans which was once home to rock and roll legend James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Bassie and baseball greats Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth, among others.

Police and media reports say Daniel confessed to the killings and that he told police that one of the female victims was his girlfriend. The other two victims were tenants.

A long-running dispute over the non-payment of rent was said to have led to the murders.

Unconfirmed reports are that the tenants reneged on a recent promise to resume paying rent which has been in arrears since the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the New York Daily News, a brother of Daniel told police investigators and reporters Tuesday that his brother is not known to be a violent person, .

That assessment seems to be borne out by neighbours who painted Daniel as quiet and expressed shock over the murders.

The identities of the three victims were still not established up to Wednesday afternoon.